


Spice

by allechant



Category: Vocaloid
Genre: Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Guilt, Implied/Referenced Incest, One-Sided Attraction, Stalking, Yandere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-10-03
Packaged: 2018-08-18 20:12:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 59,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8174545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allechant/pseuds/allechant
Summary: Life is nothing but a series of ironic tragedies. I should know. I'm in love with my sister.





	1. Chapter 1

Kagamine Len groaned as his phone started buzzing on the bedside table, the muffled vibrations deafening loud in the silence of the room. Glancing across at the sleeping girl beside him, he reached over and grabbed his phone, thinking that he really should have switched it off before he actually came up to this girl's room.

Peering at his screen, squinting against the bright backlight, he saw a very familiar number, urgent and demanding. The phone buzzed again, almost angrily, and with a sigh of resignation he swiped across the screen, accepting the call. Almost immediately, the voice of an angry female hissed into his ear. "Where are you right now, Kagamine Len? And who are you with?" the woman snapped, sounding jealous. He couldn't help but grin. "I can't believe you cancelled on me last night – you better have a good reason for it! I've been trying to reach you for hours!"

Sakine Meiko was quite the fiery woman. Her rage and her passion were the main reasons why he still stuck with her, despite her controlling ways. He knew, for all her rigidity and possessiveness, that as long as he whispered a few sweet nothings in her ear, she would grow calm and docile once more. She was very easy to anger, but just as easy to please. "Why, I'm at home of course. Sleeping. It's three in the morning, love," he yawned, something he didn't have to fake. "I really had some urgent business to attend to last night. I'll spend more time with you next time, promise," unless he found someone else willing to entertain him. Honestly, Meiko got on his nerves sometimes, but not enough for him to sever ties with her completely.

Meiko's voice had lowered into a deep, husky purr. "All right then, whatever you say," she giggled, sounding nothing like the twenty-five year old woman she actually was. "How about tomorrow night? I'm taking leave from work for a few days, I need to clear my leave, so we have plenty of time. You can even stay all night if you'd like," she offered suggestively.

He laughed quietly, careful not to awaken the slumbering woman beside him. "Tomorrow is fine. As for staying the night...we'll see about that," he said vaguely, reluctant to make any promises. After a few more insincere whispers and declarations of "I love you", he managed to hang up, setting his phone back down with a sigh of relief. Well, now he knew whose bed he would be gracing tomorrow night, but for today he was free. It would be nice to take some time out of his busy schedule for himself – he had an ever-accumulating stack of homework anyway, so he might as well make use of the free time to clear some of it.

Looking once more at the sleeping woman, he slipped off the bed with its rumpled covers and the dirty sheets which smelled like musk and sex. Gathering his clothes, he pulled his shirt over his head and put on his pants with a practiced ease born of countless one night stands. He could let himself out of the small apartment, he had come here several times before, and he would prefer to leave before the woman woke up. It was always awkward leaving when they were awake.

He didn't live too far away from here, maybe just two or three streets down from this block. It would be morning in a few hours, and he'd like to get a few hours of sleep in his own familiar bed. Besides, if he got home too late his parents would wake up – they always woke up early to go to work – and then he would have a hard time explaining where he had been all night. Plus, today was still a school day, and he was completely out of excuses for missing lessons.

Actually, Len wondered at times why he was doing this to himself. Sure, he liked the sex, he liked physical pleasure, but sometimes these women he slept with grew too...attached to him, and that was when most problems arose. All he wanted was one night of pleasure – he never wanted anything more than a simple fling with no strings attached. But some women thought that he must love them, given how often he returned to their arms and their bed. He couldn't bring himself to explain that actually, he was irrevocably in love with someone else – someone he knew he could never have, and the knowledge of that left a painful, gaping hole in his chest where his heart was supposed to beat.

It didn't take long for him to reach his own house. The three-storied building was in a suburb just a little way outside town, and he was thankful when he saw that the windows were all dark – it would be awkward if anyone was awake now to catch him sneaking home in the dead of the night. Letting himself in through the back door, he quietly locked the door behind him and poured himself a glass of water in the kitchen – he was a little thirsty after his midnight antics.

Leaving the empty glass in the sink, he snuck out of the kitchen and up the stairs towards his room, taking care to avoid the creaky fourth step on the staircase. He was used to creeping his way around at night, this hardly being the first time he left the house at ungodly hours. Reaching the next floor landing, he looked around carefully to ensure that no one was leaving their room just as he entered his own, and it was only when he was completely sure it was safe that he headed towards his room, glad that he had come home undetected once again.

As he reached out, long slender fingers curling around his doorknob, he paused and looked behind him at the door right opposite his – it was his twin sister's room, and for the longest moment he just stared at the door as though it held the key to some unfathomable secret. Then, with a quick shake of his head, he snapped out of his trance and slid into his room, opening and closing the door slowly so that it wouldn't creak too loudly. Suddenly overwhelmed by tiredness, he headed straight to his welcoming bed, not even bothering to change out of his clothes. He would change in the morning, but right now all he wanted to do was to fall into the lulling embrace of sleep.

* * *

 Morning came quickly, too quickly for Len. His window streamed sunshine into his room, and it fell upon his face – he turned away but it was too late, he was already awake. He had always been a light sleeper. Muttering a curse, he shifted into a sitting position, rubbing a hand over his weary eyes – glancing at the clock on his bedside table, he saw that it was half past seven.

Well, that meant he had roughly four hours of sleep last night. It would be enough to last him for the day, and he would just come home after school to catch up on his lost rest. Furiously rubbing the last vestiges of tiredness from his eyes, he yawned and stretched, his arms and hips throbbing in remembrance of his activities last night. The muscle aches would be gone soon enough, and until then he just had to put up with it. It was a pleasant sort of pain, one that was mildly uncomfortable but still familiar. It reminded him that last night, he had satisfied both himself and the nameless girl he met at Gumo's party. She would probably remember him for a long while. He found it odd, that this actually wasn't the first time he slept with this familiar stranger yet he still didn't know her name. Or did she tell him before, and did he simply forget?

"Len!" a familiar voice that sounded like a high-pitched version of his own rang out through the wood of his door. "I know you're awake! You better get your ass ready for school, you're going to get in trouble if you show up late again!" his dear sister scolded sharply. She was only a few minutes older than him, but she acted like she was years his senior. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, knowing it was pointless when she couldn't see him through the door anyway.

"You nag like you're Mum!" he yelled back. "You keep this up and you'll get wrinkles young!" There was a loud knock on the door, and he could practically feel his sister's impatience in the knock. He also heard the thump of footsteps and knew that she was probably heading downstairs to grab some toast for breakfast. He was glad that today was Wednesday and so they started school late. If it was any other day and he had to wake up at six, he'd probably be late again...

It didn't take long for him to get ready. Quickly, he grabbed a fresh set of clothes and darted to the bathroom for a quick shower. Five minutes later, he was downstairs with his bag slung over his shoulder, attempting to steal some of his sister's freshly buttered toast – at first, she tried to defend her breakfast, but eventually begrudgingly gave up one piece of toasty goodness. He mumbled a "thanks" through a mouth full of bread, and she simply rolled her blue eyes at him.

Kagamine Rin looked just like him, with her baby blue eyes and feathery golden blonde hair. She was a good head shorter than him, puberty clearly having granted him an edge in terms of height, and she had the cutesy good looks of a girl-next-door. Both of them were, granted, rather blessed in the genetics department. Smirking, he reached out to ruffle her hair, something she hated because it reminded her of how he was taller than her now when they were the same height five years ago – she batted his hand away like an angry cat, and with their morning ritual complete they left the house, thankfully catching the bus just as it pulled up at the nearby bus stop.

School wasn't too far from his house either. It was one of those preppy high schools meant for smarter and wealthier students, meaning that there wasn't much variety in terms of the student population. Every day he saw the same few faces and spoke to the same few people who all had the same few types of personalities. There were the usual jocks and cheerleaders, there were the geeks, there were the nice innocent do-gooders, and there were the weirdos as always. His school didn't really have room for any other kind of student, to be honest.

Rin's first class was different from his – in fact, they didn't really share many classes together. His school had an unspoken policy to separate twins, especially if they were identical, since they found it easier to differentiate them and especially because they believed twins in the same classroom would only lead to trouble. He couldn't fault the administration for thinking that way, though. He and Rin had played their fair share of pranks in class during their younger days. "Remember to come home early today," his sister reminded him tersely as their bus pulled up outside the school building. "Mum and Dad are home early for once and they want to have a family meal."

Len sighed and rolled his eyes in exaggerated exasperation. "I know. You've told me this like, five times already at least. I'll remember," his tone softened slightly as he saw his sister grin at him. Whenever she smiled, he couldn't help but notice how pretty she was. Then again, it was easy to forget her attractiveness when she was shouting at him, kicking his ass or basically behaving like she was forty. "Get a move on, you'll be late," he shoved her off the seat since she was blocking his way out. She hissed at him, then tossed a casual "bye loser" over her shoulder before she dashed down the bus steps towards the school gate.

He took his time leaving the bus, dawdling over to the gate since he knew he still had around fifteen minutes before lessons started. Not for the first time, he silently blessed the soul who decided that on Wednesday, class would start one and a half hours later than usual. It was only 8.45am now, and he would take only five minutes to get to class, so he wouldn't have to worry about yet another blemish on his otherwise flawless record. Honestly, the only reason why he even had a record in school was because of how often he showed up late to class.

As he walked through the front courtyard towards the main building, he could feel people looking at him, and a sudden grin danced across his lips – he was fairly notorious in school for what he did at night, and that gained him plenty of attention from other, mostly female, students on campus. He did have a reputation for being a bit of a player, but he didn't really see himself as a playboy. He didn't toy with a girl's affections and then dump her, after all. He liked to make it clear that he was only in it for the sex before he started anything with anyone, and most people were okay with that though some others hoped for more. He was vaguely aware that there was a secret challenge among the girls in school – a challenge to make Kagamine Len fall in love with one of them.

But none of these girls knew that his heart already belonged to another, an unattainable other. He sometimes wondered if he slept around really just because of the pleasure, or if it was to fill the gaping hole in his heart that his love left behind. The latter thought was terrifying – it was the kind of thought that came to him during the half-awake, half-asleep hour of two in the morning. It was the kind of thought which haunted his nightmares and made him toss and turn in his sleep.

As his thoughts wandered, so did his gaze, and as he casually looked around, hands shoved in his pockets, he saw a flash of teal. The colour was such a strange colour to see on this minimalistic grey campus that he looked around quickly, wondering if he had imagined the vibrant flash of colour. When he looked in the direction of the teal streak though, all he saw was the school's administration office, with no bright bluish-green in sight. Shrugging, he continued on his way, deciding that he must have imagined the flash of bright colour. He had dawdled in the courtyard for long enough, and the fifteen minutes he had before had already dropped to five. It would be best if he hurried for his first class now, since he didn't want to be late even when for once, he actually managed to show up early.

* * *

He spun his pen lazily, watching the minutes tick past on the class clock. The second hand seemed to crawl, and he felt like the clock was almost mocking him. He sat in the middle of the classroom, towards the back, but he fancied he could hear the ticking of the clock. Tick tock, tick tock it went, with a sort of malicious glee as it counted down the seconds towards the next lesson. Surely he couldn't be the only one in class feeling such animosity towards the clock.

He glanced around discreetly, not wanting to draw the teacher's attention as he droned on about Philip Larkin's self-deprecating style of poetry. It was all stuff he already knew, anyway. He did Larkin last year already, being in the advanced Literature module, so he wasn't really paying attention. Len was good at most subjects, the one subject he was terrible at being Biology since he hated memorising things. Thankfully he had dropped that module last year.

His gaze flitted towards the clock once more. The minute hand had only moved twice since the last time he looked at it, and with a quiet groan he flopped back into his seat, drumming his fingers idly against the table. He glanced down at the notepad he had on the table and the little doodles he had drawn on the page. They were mostly stick figures and games of Tic-Tac-Toe he was playing with himself. He wasn't the artistic one in their family, Rin was. Speaking of Rin, he wondered what she was up to now. She was having her advanced Art class, and since she liked Art so much he was sure she was having a lot more fun than he was. He only took advanced classes because the school system allowed you to attend fewer lessons the more advanced classes you took. But this semester the only advanced class he had left to clear was Chemistry, so his timetable wasn't significantly different from the rest of the cohort this year.

Maybe he should have waited until this year to clear his advanced modules. It was hellish sitting in lessons and listening to things he had already done last year, or the year before. Impatience was never a good thing in sex, and he supposed that applied to other things in life as well. He was thinking about whether he should take a nap on the table and whether the teacher would notice if he did, when he heard a faint knock on the door. The teacher evidently heard the sound as well since he stopped speaking halfway, looking curiously at the closed door.

"Come in," their teacher called. Len knew it couldn't be any tardy student, since everyone was present in class today, even him. The door opened and again, he caught a glimpse of teal – in walked a girl, dressed in a plain white dress and carrying a bright blue backpack. Her hair, which was the same shade of bright teal he had seen on campus earlier this morning, was tied into two simple braids which hung all the way to her waist. He couldn't really see her face, but she was slim and fair and she had very nice legs, from what he could see. The teacher stared at her as the mysterious girl walked over to him, saying something. He couldn't hear her from where he was seated.

Their teacher nodded as she spoke, comprehension dawning on his face. He cleared his throat and looked up, adjusting his tie nervously. He was a fairly young man, clearly only a few years older than them – Len guessed that he was in his mid-twenties. "Class," their teacher started, "we have a new student with us today. She just transferred from another school, and her name is..." he turned towards the girl apologetically, and she spun slowly to face the rest of them, looking at each and every student in turn. Len took advantage of this opportunity to ogle her face.

She was very pretty, easily one of the more attractive girls in school. That wasn't surprising – he had already guessed she was pretty, since she had a nice body and nice skin and nice hair and well, nice everything. Her eyes were green and impossibly big, drooping a little at the edges to give her a sleepy, but adorable puppy-dog kind of appearance. She had cute, pouty tiny mouth with rosy pink lips and a slightly upturned nose. After taking note of her face, his gaze dropped to her figure again – the dress she wore wasn't so loose that it left everything to his imagination, but it wasn't form-fitting either. His eyes darted from curve to curve of her slender, willowy body, imagining the things he could do with someone as slim and petite as her.

"My name is Hatsune Miku," her voice was clear and sweet, and extremely high-pitched – like the bright, sharp tinkling of glasses clinking. He actually flinched, unprepared for such a voice. "My parents move around a lot for work but I lived here when I was little. My parents decided to settle here again so I'll be finishing the rest of my senior year here," she smiled nervously then, clasping her hands together before her chest. "I hope you all can guide me along!" she continued, still looking from student to student – then her gaze landed on him, and he stared directly back at her.

He thought that her gaze lingered on him for just a few seconds longer than it did for the other students, but he couldn't be sure. The next thing he knew she was looking away from him, back at the teacher, the neutral expression on her face leaving him uncertain as to whether he had imagined their brief connection. The teacher murmured something to her and she nodded, making her way to one of the two empty seats in the classroom. One was next to him since the student who sat there before was currently hospitalised due to leukaemia, and was unlikely to be released before the end of senior year. The other empty table was next to the window, two seats away from his. The girl hesitated momentarily when she drew near, obviously trying to decide which seat to choose – to his mild surprise, she turned away from him and moved towards the window seat. He was quite used to people clamouring for his attention since he was smart, good-looking and fairly well-off, so her lack of interest in him was rather jarring.

The class was still following her every movement. The girl pulled out the chair and sat gracefully, tucking the hem of her dress in and placing a single pen with a blank notebook on the table. She sat at attention when she was done arranging her stationery, and for a while you could have heard a pin drop, the classroom was that quiet. Then their teacher cleared his throat again and went back to his lecture, and everything returned to normal save for the presence of the new girl. He found that his attention, already wandering before, was completely fixed upon this Hatsune Miku instead of Larkin now. He found himself glancing at her every so often, though she was focused on the lesson and her gaze never wandered away from the teacher.

Change was something he rarely saw in his life. His parents were dealing with problems in their companies now – both of them were holding high ranking positions in the company hierarchy – so they were often in the office and, even when at home, they were usually working in the study or talking to staff and colleagues on their phones. He came to school late most of the time, hardly paid attention since he preferred to catch up by himself at home, and fooled around at night with whomever caught his fancy. And his sister would come home in the late afternoon or evening, nag at him aggressively with her flashing bright blue eyes – he liked to goad her just to see the sparks of anger flying from her gaze – and either busy herself with schoolwork or just laze around at home in her scanty pyjamas, her sketchbook in one hand and an ink pen in another.

His sister was entirely too comfortable around him for his comfort. It was as though she sometimes forgot that, despite him being her twin, he was actually male, and she liked to walk around at home with nothing on but a translucent, oversized shirt and lacy panties. It made him fidget when he saw her like that but even when he asked her to change, she hardly ever listened to him. It was on those days where he stayed out the longest and was the most active in seeking out girls to satisfy him.

Anyway, his life was routine. Even the students and teachers in school were a constant in his life, something that grounded him when he couldn't sleep at night and thought about his reason for existing. But this girl was new, she was something different and he found himself thinking over what that could mean for him. Of course, it could be as simple as him finding a new sexual conquest – even for someone as steady and constant as him, it was nice to change things up once in a while, and to lie in the arms of a new girl, her gaze still innocent and unsullied by the cruelties of love and the world. But on the other hand...discreetly, he glanced across at her again. She was still looking straight ahead, but he felt like perhaps she knew he was looking at her. It was the way she sat ramrod straight in her chair, her shoulders tense. She looked like she could sense, somehow, that she was being watched, although she hadn't even glanced at him once.

He thought that it would be interesting to become acquainted with this new person. It would be a nice change...suddenly, the memory of Meiko and her demanding words came to mind, and he shuddered. Yes, it would be nice to have yet another alternative when he was lonely at night. Nowadays he was going to Meiko too often, and that seemed to give her the impression that she held some kind of sway over him. Truthfully, she didn't, but since they just had mid-term examinations a while ago, most students in school were still recovering from their last minute studying and he was kind enough to keep away until the girls were less stressed. So he went to the few working-age acquaintances he had, and Meiko just happened to be one of them.

Suddenly, the school bell pealed, and he jolted up in his seat – he hadn't realised that time was passing by so quickly. The girl's arrival really seemed to speed things up a little. It must be the disruption to his usual routine messing with his perception of time. "Don't forget to submit the essay by next week," their teacher called out over the noise of chatter and of books and pens being swept hastily into bags. He glanced again at the new girl, and saw that she was the only one who bothered to write their homework down into that notepad of hers. He studied her, slowly getting up from his chair, and as he tucked the chair in behind the table she looked up and suddenly, abruptly, their gazes met. Green clashed with blue, and for a moment all he could do was stare at her.

He thought he saw a faint glimmer of recognition flit through her gaze, but then again he could have mixed it up with anything else. He, for all his ability to coax pleasure and murmur honey words of promise, was terrible with feelings. He couldn't tell sadness from jealousy, or simple irritation from true anger. Well, not unless the person was really obvious and not the typical passive-aggressive girls he seemed to involve himself with, his sister included. And anyway, she couldn't possibly recognise him. This was the first time he had ever seen her...unless she had seen him sneaking home from the apartment complex last night? But he quickly brushed that thought away; she couldn't have, no one in their right mind would be awake so late.

He glanced up at her again, but when he looked this time she was already gone, and he hastily searched the classroom only to see her teal braids swinging as she ducked out past the door. He wondered what her next class was and whether he would see her again – he hoped they would share a few more lessons together, since she was someone so new and he was terribly intrigued by whatever was new. Life didn't seem to crawl as much when there was something new to distract him with, or at least that was what he observed from the class he just had.

Looking up at the clock, he decided he would relax a little more before he set off for the next class. There were still a few of his classmates talking in the room anyway, taking their time to leave. As he leant back against his table and shut his eyes, intending to take a quick, three minute power nap, he heard a familiar voice and felt a firm hand shake his shoulder, causing his brow to furrow in annoyance. His eyes snapped open and his gaze met blue eyes that were just a shade darker than his own. One of his good friends, Shion Kaito, was looking at him with one eyebrow raised. There was a knowing expression on his face, and Len already could guess what he was about to say.

"You're going to go after her, aren't you?" his friend asked. "That new student, Hatsune Miku. She's pretty hot," the navy haired boy mused. Shion Kaito was one of the taller guys in school. His father was the president of Shion Corps, the multinational company which dealt with oil fields in Saudi Arabia or somewhere along those lines – Len was not really sure since he didn't have any particular interest in the oil industry. Shion Corps also had a hand in defence technology, and all this meant that Kaito was very well-off – not that you could tell, since the guy seemed to wear the same few clothes over and over again in different combinations. Of course, Len didn't have many clothes himself, but he at least had enough clothes to wear a different outfit each day of the week. He thought Kaito had worn this exact same outfit just two days ago. Not that he really paid attention, since he was a guy and all, but Kaito's fashion choices were something his sister evidently paid attention to.

"I don't know. Maybe," he shrugged, thinking over Kaito's words. Did he really want to chase this girl? She didn't seem to have the slightest inkling of interest in him, from what he saw, and he knew better than to push himself upon a girl who wasn't looking for a boyfriend or a relationship. She seemed content to just study, ace her senior year and graduate from school, if her behaviour during class was any indication of her personality. "She seems kind of cold, actually," he said slowly, frowning a little as he thought about her behaviour. Kaito just grinned knowingly.

"You know that the frosty ones are the best," Kaito joked. Or maybe he wasn't joking, Len couldn't really tell when it came to Kaito. All he knew was that, when it came to Kaito, he was mostly all talk and no action. He might make sexual innuendos and he might sound experienced, but Len knew that he wasn't, not really. He also knew that Rin had a bit of a crush on Kaito, for some strange reason, and it actually got on his nerves a little. To begin with, the idea that anyone could have a crush on Kaito was just downright weird. The knowledge that his twin sister was the one having said crush was, on the other hand, infuriating. But he didn't take it out on his friend since he never tried to seduce his sister or anything like that – Len just kept the annoyance and anger within, acting as though it didn't bother him one jot. He was a fairly good actor, or so he believed.

"Not my preference," Len now murmured, eyes darting to the clock and noting that he had approximately two minutes left to get to class. Luckily, it was on the same floor, and his Music teacher was always fashionably late anyway. "I'll see you later during lunch, I gotta get to class now," he pushed away from the table, grabbing his bag as he went. Kaito waved goodbye as he left the room – the navy haired boy was having a break now. Len's next break wouldn't be for another two hours. Wednesdays started late, but they were long, tedious days for him too.

However, as he pushed open the door to his Music classroom and caught a glimpse of teal in the large mirror that stretched across an entire wall of the room, he felt his lips curl up into a small smile. Perhaps his day would not be quite as tedious as he had feared it to be.


	2. Chapter 2

Len slunk over to his seat at the back of the classroom, ignoring the looks he knew were being shot his way. He was used to receiving looks all the time. Usually, it felt great to be the centre of attention, but every once in a while he just wanted to be left alone. This was one of those times.

His usual chair in class put him almost directly behind Hatsune Miku. In Music, they didn't have tables – these were all replaced by stands to hold whichever scores they were doing that day. There was no worry about there being newcomers who didn't know how to read musical scores, since Music was an additional elective only open to people who met certain qualifications.

It was surprising that he was here instead of his sister, since Rin was the more artsy one between the both of them. She was an excellent artist who took naturally to most art forms, and she was a great singer too, but she had never bothered to go for any formal singing examinations so she didn't have the necessary certificates to get into this class. Not that it bothered her that much, anyway. She liked to sing as a hobby, and told him once that she didn't want her hobby to be regulated and tested, the same way her art was. It was a little secret she wanted to keep to herself since when she sang, she bared a part of her soul, whereas she could still hide that in her sketches. She didn't want to show such a private part of herself to a board of examiners.

He understood that, actually. But he was used to baring private parts of himself for the eyes of others. He was as transparent as one could be, never lying about his feelings about another. Whenever someone declared their love for him, he couldn't bring himself to return those words, not when he knew they would be a lie. Every time he slept with a stranger he exposed a private, vulnerable part of himself to them, but he had grown so used to this routine that it was starting to become...not so private anymore. It used to make him uneasy since he was taught that sleeping around was immoral, but as time passed by the unease faded, and as the discomfort left so did his pride in keeping secrets. In his life, privacy was a rare and precious commodity, and he didn't think he really deserved it all that much. Privacy belonged to those who were pure, and he was not.

Forcing himself to focus on the present, he shook himself slightly and looked towards the teal braids, shimmering under the light just a little distance before him. He was curious about what her qualifications were. He played the piano and was pretty good at it too, which was how he got into the module. Well, that along with the fact that he was pitch perfect and could sing well. When they were younger, he and Rin used to sing duets all the time, but that happened a lot less now they were older and spent less time with each other, trying to carve out individual identities. Even Len did not want to spend the rest of his life being known as 'the male Kagamine twin'. He loved his twin sister, but he was so much more than just her reflection, and the same applied to her.

Their tutor was late as always. She only ever showed up on time on two days – the first and the last day of school. He wondered what she was doing before lessons, since she was the only teacher who consistently came late to class, but those were her personal affairs so he didn't allow himself to wonder too much. He knew from his own experience that there was nothing worse than some stranger trying to butt their nose into your business, so he wouldn't wonder about what his teacher was up to even if he was her student and he was curious about her misconduct.

His attention, as always, wandered. He was a bit of a daydreamer, though that toned down as he got older. Before he figured out that he learnt best alone at home, he always showed up to class and just daydreamed away, not paying attention even when his teacher called on him. During parent-teacher meetings, his teachers always said he could do so much better, if only he would focus in class...well, he still hardly paid attention nowadays, but he was one of the top students in the cohort anyway. He couldn't learn by simply listening to the teacher, he needed to go home to the comfort and privacy of his bedroom and read the material himself to understand. His bedroom was his haven, and it was the only place where he felt like he could be himself. He had never brought a girl to his room before, and he didn't want to. He didn't think he ever would, either.

Hatsune Miku was writing away on her notebook. He could see her head bent over the pages, the faint wispy baby hairs at the nape of her neck curling against the pale skin. Her hair was incredibly long and, under the warm light of the music room, it looked soft and silky. It was the kind of hair he could imagine himself dragging his fingers through. He looked at the length of her hair and wondered if she used a lot of conditioner to keep her hair this way. Rin had much shorter hair than her yet she could use up an entire bottle of conditioner in less than two weeks, and he wasn't sure if that was normal or if his sister was using too much. He didn't understand girls, for all the time he spent with them and knowing their bodies. He could never fathom the fuss of having to both shampoo and condition hair, although his hair was almost as long as his sister's. He and Rin had both inherited their mother's hair, so it was naturally smooth and shiny anyway.

He wondered what she was writing in that notebook, since they hadn't even started class yet. Was she already beginning on the essay assigned during their Literature lesson? If so, that wouldn't surprise him – she seemed like the nerdy, bookish type, though her looks didn't fit the stereotype. How interesting. He continued to focus on her, content to watch her do her work as he memorised the curve of her shoulders and the soft glimmer of her teal hair. It was almost relaxing, not having to think of anything as he stared intently at the new girl. Perhaps she could feel him watching her, because after a while she actually turned to look at him, but her green eyes met his for only a quick moment before she looked down at her notepad again. His curiosity about her grew.

Right then, the door opened and their music teacher flounced in, an elegant woman dressed in a long, simple black dress who moved in a cloud of her own fragrant perfume. She was someone who clearly understood the pleasures and luxuries of life – sometimes, she would detour from her lessons and tell them about her weekend or vacation. Wine tasting, bungee jumping, sitting front row at the Paris Fashion Show...she was clearly a rich woman, and that actually made him wonder why she was teaching here at this school when she didn't have to. Maybe she was bored at home, with nothing to entertain her besides other beautiful, wealthy people and her own luxurious fancies.

"Ah, you are a new child!" she exclaimed, gaze settling on the teal haired girl sitting in front of him. "Come, come up here and tell me what your speciality is!" Hatsune Miku rose from her seat and weaved through the maze of chairs and stands towards the front. She said something to the teacher; what, he couldn't be sure because he had never been very good at lip-reading. The teacher nodded and looked directly at him – he blinked back, uncertain about why she was staring at him when she had to deal with the new girl. "Well, Miku, you should continue sitting with Len, in that case," the woman decided. "He is also both pianist and vocalist, and is pitch perfect to boot! Plus he needs a duet partner for his latest composition. I'm sure you two will work well together," their teacher announced cheerfully. His breath caught, and his gaze flicked towards the girl – she was staring right back at him, but her expression was unreadable.

Nodding towards their teacher, she picked her way back through the chairs towards him, ignoring the looks and whispers that filled the room at the announcement. It was true that he had been looking for a duet partner – it was a pity indeed that Rin wasn't in his class – and the reason why he couldn't find one was because of how choosy he was. He was good at his work and he expected his partner to be equally proficient in composition and playing, which was difficult since he had such a highly musical background. Their teacher knew of how particular he was as well, which was why she had not been pushing him to find a partner as quickly as possible. If she announced in front of the whole class that Miku was to be his partner, then...she had to be at least decent.

Miku drew her chair over towards him, sitting right next to him with her closed notebook placed primly on her lap. Their teacher, seemingly oblivious to the giggles of the girls and the curious looks being shot at him and his new duet partner, had gone into the latest score she wanted them to play. Their version of music class basically consisted of their teacher picking out scores she liked and them learning how to play it for her. They went through ten scores per semester at least, on top of having to actually compose a song with accompanying vocals as their final, but he didn't mind. He actually liked the huge workload, which was why he was still in this class even though he had cleared enough modules here to drop the class two years ago.

"So, how good are you at composition and arrangement?" he asked, deciding to get the most important question out of the way – he would do a proper introduction later, after he had confirmed that she was really up to his high standards. She smiled, not saying anything in reply, and reached forward to pick up the folder he had placed on the stand before him. Instinctively his hand shot out towards her, not wanting a stranger to see his compositions, but she glanced at him again and he retreated. She flipped open the folder, looking through his pieces, and he found himself gnawing nervously on his lip, wondering how she would react to his work. He wasn't sure why he actually cared – he knew he was good, so her feelings about his pieces shouldn't matter at all to him.

"These are nice," she observed, her voice once again the silvery tinkling of glass. A sense of relief flooded through him at the approval. "You must have composed quite a few songs...this score is familiar," she paused at one of the sheets, her fingers lingering thoughtfully over the page. He looked down to see what she was reading, and immediately lunged over to flip the score. He couldn't help himself; that piece held a special significance for him, and he didn't want to share it with anyone, not even with Rin. Hatsune Miku stared at him, her eyes wide with surprise, and his mind scrabbled for an acceptable reason to explain his rude behaviour.

"Uh...it's just a work in progress," he said lamely, "I don't really want anyone to see it until it's finished. You can look at the other songs though," in a way, he wasn't lying. Although the composition she noticed was already complete, he was always trying to tweak it, to make it sound as perfect as it did in his memories. That particular song was one from his childhood – a very faint, fuzzy sort of memory, but he could recall the melody nevertheless. He couldn't remember who sang it to him, when he heard it, or what the song's title even was, but the haunting tune stuck with him and it was one of the few things in his life which could actually calm him and make him long for a past long gone. He was always trying to look ahead to the future, but this old nostalgic tune made him reminiscent of his childhood. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"All right, I understand," the girl answered simply. He was a little surprised, since he had not thought that she would accept such a weak excuse. She looked through the scores again, humming the compositions lightly to herself, and the more she read through the greater the grasp he had of her musical ability. He could confidently say that she was very good at reading scores, and her pitching was good as well. She had a very sweet and melodious singing voice, definitely more soprano than alto, and he took note of that so that he could properly weave their voices together during their duet. Rin was an alto, so he was more than used to composing pieces for a lower female voice. It had been a while since he had to compose for a different singer.

"You must be very good, to be able to get into this module," he observed, finally breaking the silence between them. The rest of the class were all trying out the latest score they had been assigned, but it felt like the two of them were in a world of their own. "The school is very strict about who comes here, since they actually submit our final compositions to the annual Music Festival and they want to win the top cash prize. It is a lot of money though, so I understand why," she hadn't looked up from the pages, but her timely nods made it clear that she was listening to him. "My name is Kagamine Len. I had Literature class with you this morning," he mentioned.

"I know," her lips curved up into a small smile. "I saw you. And I already know who you are. I've been in town for two days and I was talking to my cousin about this place. He attends the neighbouring school to ours, and he told me about you, you know," at this, she looked up straight at him. Her green eyes burned. "You have quite the reputation among women, don't you, Kagamine Len?" she asked, her fingers lingering on the second last page of his folder.

He didn't know how to respond. If he denied it, he would be a flat-out liar, but he didn't want the girl to have any wrong impressions of him, just in case her cousin happened to exaggerate anything about him. He was almost an urban legend, so there were stories and rumours about him which were completely false, and not all of these false tales were entirely flattering. "Whatever he told you was probably a lot worse than what I'm actually like," he finally replied, not knowing what else he could say. He couldn't deny her words, but just outright admitting that he was a womaniser of sorts was troubling. He didn't want her to have an ill impression of him even before they started working together. He didn't expect her to like him much though, since she knew about him...which was a pity, because she really was very pretty and gracing her bed wouldn't have been a chore.

"He told me that you play around with girls. You seduce them and sleep with them, and come back as many times as they want, but you never return their declarations of love. He has a friend whose heart was broken by you. Not because you lied to her, but because you never returned her feelings," she didn't sound accusatory, much to his surprise. In fact, she seemed curious. "He doesn't understand you, and neither do I. You're a playboy who doesn't cheat or take joy in breaking hearts. Why do you sleep around then, with so many girls? What's the point of all this?"

He shushed her, glancing around to see if anyone was listening to their conversation. It was no secret what he did, but nevertheless he didn't want people to be discussing this in school. There was a time and place for everything. "No particular reason," he sounded abrupt, and knew that he would come off as defensive. But it was the truth, since he didn't know himself why he was doing this. It wasn't really just about the pleasure, because sometimes he got sick and tired of warm bodies and soft lips, but he still pressed on with it. Sex was like alcohol to him – mind-numbing and exhilarating, but too much made him sick. When that happened, he would ask himself the same question she was asking him now, whether there was any real point to doing all this.

It was just that sleeping around made him forget about the difficulties of his life, at least for just a moment. And sleeping with different women made him feel less guilty about what he was doing. At least he was dispersing his relationship development. Better to have a huge pool of women than to develop a close bond with just one. He didn't want to imagine having to cut the bond that would form if he kept sleeping with the same person, over and over again. Ultimately he would have to sever the connection, since he couldn't love any of his bed partners. In his own twisted way he was trying to save the hearts of his bed mates, but he didn't think that excused his behaviour. Len knew that he was pretty messed up, but he had been this way for a long time, ever since he was old enough to know what sex was and how it felt. When did it all start? When he was...sixteen?

"And I think you're lying," she searched his gaze, her slightly droopy green eyes making her look like a tired little puppy. "You have your secrets and everyone deserves their privacy, so I won't probe. I only brought this up for one reason – please don't waste your time on me, if that is what you're thinking of. I only want to complete my senior year and graduate so I can find a job and work with what I love to do, and I don't want anything to get in my way," she concluded, her gaze dropping down to the very last score in his folder. He stared at her, momentarily speechless.

He didn't know how to respond to her words. On one hand, he wanted to be offended and ask her, in the most snarky tone he could manage, what made her think he would be interested in someone like her. But again that would be a lie. He would sleep with anyone who wanted him to, since all that mattered to him was the sex. Conversation, personality, body or looks – it didn't really concern him that much, though of course he did have limits and wouldn't agree to anything too kinky. This girl was probably aware of that, which was why she could make such a bold statement. If he became angry, they both knew it would be nothing more than a mask for his wounded pride.

So he forced a smile and nodded. "Well, whatever you say," he managed pleasantly enough. She smiled placidly at him, and for the rest of the lesson they discussed their musical styles and what they had in mind for their final project. It was as though the tense, awkward conversation had never taken place, but he couldn't just forget about it as quickly as she did. Her words lingered in the back of his mind, festering and ugly. He resisted the urge to grimace; he had never been rejected in such a straightforward manner, especially not even before he asked if she was interested in him.

When the bell rang, he was almost glad. Quickly, he turned away from Miku and stuffed his folder full of compositions in his bag, hoping that he wouldn't run into the teal haired girl again for any other classes today. He had to lick his wounds before he could face her properly, and maybe she could guess that he was offended because she kept quiet and stood away from him, leaving the classroom without a word of farewell. He couldn't help but watch her go though, unwillingly fascinated by the bright glimmer of teal that followed her wherever she went. The colour was warm and familiar, though he had never met anyone else with that hair colour before, and he thought that he might have once known someone else with hair like hers, but he couldn't recall whom.

* * *

During his break, Len couldn't help but be distracted by thoughts of Miku and her warning to leave her alone. He respected her dedication to her grades and how organised she seemed to be, but that didn't make her words any less irritating. It had to be admitted that he was unused to rejection, so being shot down by her now pricked at his ego. Tomorrow's session with Meiko suddenly seemed rather appealing – at least Meiko wanted him, and she didn't make that any secret.

"Len, you okay?" Kaito, who was sitting next to him at the table, was eating from a cup of ice cream. Len was tempted to get a cup for himself, but the ice cream in the school cafeteria was ridiculously overpriced...like most of the food there was, actually. "You've been spacing out all day, which is seriously weird. Did someone reject you?" he joked, but Len flinched. What Kaito said was too close to the truth for his comfort. Before he had to reply though, Utatane Piko cut in.

"Like anyone would reject Len," the silver haired boy snorted. "He's like the school's sex god. He probably has some secret fan club which worships him as their god or something," Piko sawed away at his overcooked steak to no avail. "Are you sure you're not talking about yourself, Kaito?"

"Well, just to let you know I do have my eye on someone and I think the feeling happens to be mutual!" Kaito shoved another spoon of ice cream into his mouth. It was cookies and cream flavoured, Len's second favourite after banana ice cream. He was particularly fond of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream, but the cafeteria didn't sell Ben and Jerry's, much to his chagrin.

Piko opened his mouth, clearly prepared to ask who the unlucky girl was, when he heard a familiar voice call out from behind him. "Hey, Kai!" his sister bubbled enthusiastically, coming up to his table where he was seated with Kaito and Piko, two of his closest friends in school. Len blinked, turning to stare at his twin – he was sitting right next to Kaito and he happened to be her _twin brother_ , yet she chose to greet some ice cream loving idiot instead of him first? And since when did she have a nickname for _Kaito_ , of all people? His gut was churning, and he started to feel a little sick. He wasn't sure if it was because of Rin being all pally with Kaito or if he happened to eat a bad lunch just now.

"Rinny!" Kaito responded just as cheerfully. It made Len feel sicker. Even he didn't call his sister that, since Rin was likely to punch the person who gave her a nickname, but all she did was giggle and twirl some of her blonde hair around her finger. Len recognised these to be signs of infatuation, and it felt like a black pit was threatening to swallow up his stomach. "Have your lessons ended already? Do you want to grab a bite after school? A new cafe just opened up in town, and I think it's near your house," Kaito was clearly excited about going out with his twin sister.

"I'd love to, but I have to be home early today, we have a family dinner," Rin explained. Kaito looked slightly crestfallen, but he didn't insist. Rin glanced towards him, and Len grimaced – seeing his sister and his good friend flirting right in front of him was making him feel nauseated. "Don't forget about coming home early tonight, I don't care about what you wanna do afterwards but just make sure you're there at the dinner table," she threatened, her voice back to normal instead of the sweet, simpering tone she used while speaking to Kaito. Len rolled his eyes and nodded, wishing for once that she would go away, and Rin smiled one last time at Kaito before she walked away, joining her own friends at the other side of the cafeteria. Len felt slightly better then, but only slightly.

"You two are gross. She's my sister!" he turned towards Kaito and snapped at him, hoping that Kaito would mistake his agitation to be a result of simple brotherly protectiveness instead of what it really was. Kaito grinned sheepishly, running his fingers through his hair while Piko stared at both of them with his mouth hanging slightly open, his steak clearly forgotten. "Even if you two want to flirt, don't do it in front of me! Just...just thinking about you having a crush on my _sister_ makes me sick."

"You can't control love!" Kaito defended himself. Len let out a groan, burying his head in his arms as he slumped on the cafeteria table. He used it as an excuse to sort out his racing thoughts and the bitterness which filled his heart – he knew that Rin had a crush on Kaito, but he didn't know it was mutual, and he certainly didn't know it had reached a stage where they were going out on dates. What if they continued and became really serious about each other? What if his sister lost her virginity to his friend? The possibility was truly sickening, but now that he had thought about it the image wouldn't leave his mind. He gritted his teeth – no, he couldn't let them get that far.

"Do whatever you want, just _don't_ go all lovey-dovey in front of me," he emphasised, though his words were muffled as his head was still in his arms. "And don't you dare brag about any milestones you achieve, either. Not with my sister," he looked up at that, and there was no hint of any joke at all in his words. He was perfectly serious. Kaito and Piko stared at him for a good moment, clearly wondering why he was being so forceful about this when he rarely showed such severity for anything, but after a while Kaito just shrugged and the three of them went back to normal. Len's emotions were still in turmoil though. He didn't know how he ought to feel about this.

On one hand, he did want his sister to be happy, and he wanted Kaito to be happy as well. They were both important people in his life, and he only wanted the best for them though it may not always appear to be that way. But on the other hand...he couldn't force himself to be happy that his sister's crush was returning her feelings, since he didn't even want her to like anyone in the first place. The fact that her crush was on Kaito just made everything worse because he couldn't possibly diss his friend in front of his sister. Though some spiteful part of him wanted to do that...he wanted them to break up before they even started. But he knew doing that would be plain wrong.

Kaito and Piko were talking about a video game now, the past few moments clearly forgotten. Len forced himself to listen to them, though he wasn't much of a gamer – he did play the same games as Kaito and Piko, but only when they wanted him to. If it was up to his own decision, the consoles in the living room wouldn't ever be touched, but then again he wasn't really like his two friends. Unlike them, he had a much more interesting nightlife, and because of that he spent a lot of his free time catching up on lost sleep or undone homework. He didn't really have time to dedicate to gaming, unlike Piko and Kaito. He was sure that Rin used his console more than he did.

"Len?" a female voice addressed him from some distance away. He didn't have to turn to recognise the sound of glass chiming. "Your score, the one you're focused on completing...your secret project, may I see it now, really quickly?" all three of them turned towards the speaker, who had covered the distance to their table and was now standing directly behind Len. Len was staring at her, quite shocked that she was speaking to him of her own accord. After what she said to him during Music class, he was under the impression that she didn't want anything to do with him outside of their lessons. "It's just...there's something incredibly familiar about it. I just want to check if it's what I remember," her green eyes bored into him. He was finding it hard to swallow, and he was actually somewhat confused as to why she would come to his table during break just to ask him about this.

"It's a private project though. I'm not particularly keen on letting people I don't know well look at it. Sorry," he managed. He couldn't possibly just let her see the score, not when it was such a private thing. He admitted before that he didn't think he deserved the privilege of privacy, given his deviant behaviour, but this short piece of music was a real secret and he intended to keep it to himself for as long as possible. It was more than just a piece of music to him. He got the feeling that if he could replicate the song perfectly, it would be the key to his past, and that was one thing he desperately wished to unlock. There was something from his childhood he wanted to remember, but what?

Her face fell slightly, but she was rather persistent. "I might be able to help you finish your project," she offered. He didn't doubt her proficiency – she had proved to him that she was very good at music, and was probably at the same standard as him or maybe even better. He knew that she would be able to tweak the piece beautifully, and maybe even get it perfectly, like the tune he heard when he was little. But he shook his head, nevertheless. This was something he had to do alone.

She sighed, but thanked him anyway before moving away from the table. He hadn't missed the fervent light of excitement in her eyes when she asked him for the score, and he wondered why she was so excited about seeing the piece. She had to be really eager, to come to his table during break despite not wishing to be associated with him. However, her excitement made him feel a little possessive about his secret. He always thought that this hauntingly beautiful melody was a part of his childhood, and his alone. It was supposed to be something exclusive and wonderful, a rare treasure he could call his own. But since Hatsune Miku said it was vaguely familiar to her as well, maybe it wasn't as exclusive as he thought it to be. Kaito and Piko, who had been quiet up till this point, suddenly started talking all at once. "Wow, is that a new girl? She's hot," Piko mused.

"What did she want? I've never seen you deny a girl anything before, Len," Kaito raised an eyebrow, smiling suggestively. Len ignored him, still absorbed in his own world. "But yeah, she's hot," Kaito added absentmindedly, agreeing with Piko. Both of them laughed, but Len heard what they said and he acknowledged that yes, Miku was hot. In fact, she wasn't just hot, she was beautiful. She might have rejected him but that didn't taint his eye for beauty; she was extremely pretty, with her large green eyes and her pert, cute upturned nose. And her lips...she had a tiny mouth with pink lips, pouty and highly kissable. It was such a pity that she rejected him before he could make a move.

"Are you going after her then?" Kaito asked, repeating the question he asked this morning. At first, Len had said no. She was too cold, and he didn't want to force himself upon someone who was unwilling. But he was very interested in this girl now, since she displayed an equal interest in his secret project. And it may have helped that she rejected him, since now that he was feeling better about being turned down, it actually made him a little more determined to win her over. Seeing Rin flirting with Kaito may have contributed to his sudden recklessness too – either way, he resolved then that he would seduce Miku and get her into bed with him. It would be an interesting challenge.

"I don't know," he answered, looking at her as she cut across the cafeteria, her hips swaying in the most tempting way as she walked. He could always change his mind...but then he remembered her curiosity, her flashing green eyes, her placid smile when she told him to leave her alone, and he turned away from her, looking back at his two friends. He grinned. "But probably yes."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are some M-rated scenes here, you can skip them if you're uncomfortable with it. The more important thing is the idea of what he's doing, you don't necessarily have to read the details. Anyway, it's not a very graphic scene but it is important for the plot to advance.

Hatsune Miku sighed, setting her pen down on her notebook. She couldn't stop thinking about the music score Len had composed. She knew there was something familiar about the piece of music, but she hadn't really gotten a good look at it – she just saw the first three bars and knew that it was similar to the song she knew, but it wasn't exactly the same. What did that similarity mean, then?

It had been a long time since she last came to this town. Her parents had moved away from here when she was ten years old, taking her with them, and for the past eight years she had been travelling around the globe, settling in all sorts of places. She had been to almost every continent – Antarctica was the only one they never visited, for which she was glad since she could not tolerate the cold – and during that process, she had learnt plenty about different people and cultures.

She was used to being the odd one out. Her hair alone made her different, but sometimes she felt even more of a stranger when they settled in the tropics, and her green eyes and pale skin made her look extremely different from the natives there. She had the kind of skin which simply couldn't tan. She just sort of reddened and, when her skin recovered, it would be as fair as it always was. After a while, once she was past the confusing turmoil of emotions and fear that was puberty, she found that there was no point in her trying to fit in anywhere. She would do better to embrace her differences and focus on what she really wanted to achieve, so she decided that no matter where she went she wouldn't distract herself from her studies. And now, she was back where she started.

Her parents were lucky. When they made the decision to move back to their hometown, they found that the house they used to live in was back on the market, so they had promptly snapped it up and now, she ran her fingers across the familiar, yet unfamiliar, walls of her room. Whoever lived in this room after she moved away had repapered her room, and now instead of her calming old blue wallpaper, the room's walls were plain creamy white, the furniture in the room replaced by glass, steel and sleek, minimalistic curves and edges. She guessed that the person who lived here was probably in their early twenties, just like she would be in a few years. The decoration was nice, she just wasn't used to it – but the rooms and the house were comforting, nevertheless.

After her lunch break, she didn't have any classes with Len so she didn't have any other chances to peek at his mysterious folder. He really did have talent, she couldn't deny that. All of the pieces he composed were sad, but remarkably compelling. He used no fancy directions, had no unnecessary embellishments. But his lines were graceful and the melody flowed in such a beautiful, natural way that she had to be impressed. It sounded like he was pouring his heart and soul into every composition, in a way she couldn't imagine possible for someone like...well, him.

After she moved back here, the first thing she had done was catch up with her cousin, Mikuo, who was the same age as she was. They had the same teal hair and green eyes, and people had often commented on their resemblance when they were younger. He helped her catch up with the latest gossip here, throwing out names which she had once found familiar. It was fun actually, laughing with her cousin and gasping as he told her about all the outrageous things her old friends and classmates had gotten up to. Most of those old friends had either moved away too, or gone to other schools in town to study, but it was entertaining to hear about them nevertheless.

Then he mentioned that Kasane Teto, the over-enthusiastic girl she remembered was in her class when she was younger, had just recently gotten her heart broken and was eating so much bread and chocolate that he actually worried about her. Miku then casually asked who had broken the girl's heart – Teto was fun and affable, she couldn't imagine anyone dumping her unless they were the quiet kind who disliked chatter. At this, Mikuo hesitated as though he had just remembered something, and it was only after a few moments did he say the two words, "Kagamine Len".

She thought she had misheard at first. "Len?" she repeated, not quite sure if her cousin was referring to the same boy she remembered. Mikuo made a noise of assent, and as she stood there with the phone pressed to her ear, her green eyes staring at nothing, her cousin dove into all the rumours and stories, the name the blond boy had made for himself the past few years, and she listened. She could hardly bring herself to believe it, for the Len she once knew when she was younger hadn't seemed _anything_ like what her cousin described, but she didn't think that Mikuo was lying. The next day, she visited him, he told her more, and it was only then that she truly believed.

She sighed. It would be better for her if she started on her homework instead of thinking about this town's gossip stories. She was hardly interested in the sordid affairs of Kagamine Len, anyway. It was only her first day and she had enough homework on her plate – she did think about whether she ought to invite Mikuo out for dinner, since her parents were back in their old home still trying to sort out a few things, and she would be alone at home for the entire week. She knew her cousin would welcome her company, they were close as children and had kept in contact even after her family moved all over the place. But at the same time, she didn't want to intrude. She had taken up enough of his time yesterday, so it wouldn't be very nice for her to bother him again, even if it was welcome.

Still, she couldn't seem to get the idea of Len out of her head. She sat at her new cold, smooth glass table with her laptop open and humming before her, her fingers poised to type, and she couldn't think of a single word to write. She couldn't stop thinking about that familiar score and its composer. Her eyes closed as she remembered his face and the way he had looked at her, when she told him that she wasn't interested in him – he had looked so surprised, as though he never realised that there could be a girl who would turn him down. It just spoke for the kind of person he had grown up to be, and she didn't want to associate herself with someone like him, even if she secretly wished she could talk to him normally. It would be nice to catch up with him, though he had forgotten her…

No, she had to stop thinking about things that wouldn't help her achieve her goals. She wanted to do newswriting in university with a double major in Literature, so she needed a great GPA to qualify for such a rigorous course. Her current GPA, carried over from her previous school, was good enough but she couldn't slack off just because it was _good_ enough. She had to be perfect, she had to be the best otherwise she might not get what she wanted. Her mouth set resolutely, she flipped open a book of Larkin's poetry and got to work on the assigned Literature essay. It would be a long night.

* * *

Len was exhausted, but in a good way. His stomach was satisfied and he was actually done with his homework, including that Larkin essay he had due next week. He knew he still had plenty of time to finish it, but since he was doing up all his homework, he figured he might as well do that too.

Now, he lay in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. The black wallpaper on his ceiling was covered in silver stars and swirls that represented the galaxies and the night sky. He had done this ceiling when he was younger and innocent about the ways of life and love, and although he had redecorated his room since then, the ceiling was the one thing he never bothered to change. It was actually rather calming, looking at this piece of his childhood. Letting himself relax, he found a smile curving his lips as he thought back to the cause of his good mood tonight. He was rarely in a good mood at night.

He had gotten home early, just as his twin sister told him to do. She was busy setting the table by the time he was back – he had been held up by one of his teachers, who told him that he needed to come to class more often otherwise his participation grade was going to negatively impact his otherwise perfect scores. He nodded, acknowledging the warning, and the teacher then pulled him aside to talk to him about his future career options. By the time he was done with the interrogation, it was almost six, so Len had to hurry home as quick as he could, cursing the fact that his twin sister had merrily crashed his car last week and thus, travelling anywhere now took five times as long.

He reached the kitchen just as the clock showed a quarter past six, thankfully still fifteen minutes early. His mother was already home – she was a tall, elegant beautiful woman with blonde hair tied into a low bun and blue-grey eyes that seemed to pierce into your soul. His father was not home yet. "Mother," Len greeted as he walked into the kitchen, dropping his bag onto the floor so she could give him a light, one-armed hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. Her other hand was occupied by her phone and she was firing rapid instructions down the line, so all she could do was nod at him in acknowledgement and gesture to the table, where Rin was now setting out the forks and spoons.

Rin was not the one who cooked dinner tonight, thank God. She was a terrible cook. He only ate her food when he had no choice, and generally only trusted her to make buttered toast. His mother was the cook tonight, which he looked forward to since his mother was an excellent chef and could make dishes that, in his opinion, easily rivalled those of Michelin-starred restaurants in town. But of course he was biased, she was his mother. "Your father will be a little late, he's caught in a traffic jam," their mother called as she set her phone down on the counter, pushing a few plates aside. "But he should be home in ten minutes or so, and then we can eat," she swept her arm proudly across the counter.

It was quite the feast. His mother had cooked _wagyu_ steaks with whipped potato and cream cheese sauce. She had also roasted a small chicken just in case the steak wasn't enough, and Len knew it wouldn't be enough – the steak was the size of his fist. It would be enough for his sister and mother, though. His mother had paired the steak with broccoli drizzled in oyster sauce and even had a light cheesecake for dessert, though he was sure the cake had been bought instead of baked. His mother was not a baker. Nevertheless, it smelled divine and he was looking forward to eating his share. It had been a while since he last ate anything cooked by his mother, since she was always so busy.

Rin sat next to him at their round table, and when their father was back they quickly exchanged greetings and asked about each other's day, before they all sat at the dining table and tucked into their steak. His mother had cooked his steak just the way he liked it – medium-rare, with a hint of blood – and it was now tender and succulent, the chunks of fatty beef melting in his mouth. He was enjoying himself; it had been quite a few weeks since they last had a family dinner, and his father's dry jokes about his company made for a light atmosphere. Len and Rin resembled their father greatly, though they had their mother's hair and her eye shape. They had their father's bright blue eyes and his strong, determined features, though naturally those features were softer on Rin.

He would like it if they had family dinners more often, or if his parents could talk idly with them for just a while longer after their meal. In the past, they often had time to spend together, and his family was very closely knit then. Actually, they still were very tight, but in recent months his parents' companies had encountered some trouble so they were still busy trying to fix it. His mother confided in him, telling him that it was very stressful but she was certain that they would have the issue resolved soon, while his father, as always, remained tight-lipped about his work but assured them that this pattern of absence would not continue for much longer. Those words did lift his spirits, though he knew both him and Rin were disappointed that they couldn't spend more time together as a family. But at least he had a nice meal, and he had a proper conversation with his parents.

Now, he had nothing to do but to think. It was only slightly past twelve, which was a little early for him to sleep – he didn't think he could sleep any earlier than one in the morning even if he tried to. His body was just much too used to sleeping at strange hours of the morning. His gaze slid over to his bag, which he had tossed next to his desk the moment he came up to his room, and reluctantly he rose from his bed, reaching out towards his unzipped bag. He retrieved his file of musical scores and opened up the page with his personal project, humming the tune softly to himself. No, it wasn't what he heard in his childhood – the piece was beautiful, but it wasn't the _same_. He frowned.

The hardest thing was that he couldn't remember exactly what the piece was. He could tell if it wasn't the exact song he recalled from his past, but he had nothing to guide him, nothing to help him tweak the piece into complete perfection. It was so aggravating – there was always something, _something_ in the piece which was missing, and he couldn't figure out what it was. He was one of the best musicians in school but he had no luck with this composition, and there were quite a few days where he was tempted to quit and just leave the song as that. It was lovely enough by itself.

But an instinct within him told him that he couldn't give up on this. He could let go of anything else but he just _had_ to keep trying for this song, and he would try different arrangements, over and over again until he successfully unlocked its secrets. There was something in this elusive tune which might hold a key to his past, to the memories which lay floating and shimmering just beneath the surface. He was certain that once he heard the right piece, he would remember something, and then maybe his life would make some more sense. Maybe he would figure out why he ended up so strange, why he did all these things normal people wouldn't do, even though he didn't particularly enjoy himself.

Carefully, he set the folder down on his desk, reaching up with his other hand and undoing his blond ponytail. Perhaps he could just try to lie in bed and fall asleep – maybe for once he would be able to sleep early. Changing quickly into a comfy pair of linen shorts and a white, well-worn tank top, he ducked out of his room and headed to the bathroom, determined to wash up and brush his teeth before his sister could hog the bathroom for her daily, hour-long beauty ritual. However, while he was creeping down the hallway to the bathroom, he heard a loud giggle emanate from her door and, unwillingly curious, he found himself going back to her room to take a look. There was a little crack in the door, and through it he could see and hear exactly what his twin was doing.

Rin was evidently on her phone, and from the faint blushing and the high-pitched giggles he inferred that she was talking to Kaito. She was dressed in some _very_ sexy black lingerie – he hadn't even known that Rin had underwear like that – and, while she listened on the phone, she leant back against her pillows, and he could see her hand creeping down her flat, pale stomach towards her black lacy panties. He was mesmerised by the sight, rooted firmly to the spot as his sister's blush deepened at whatever Kaito said on the phone. Suddenly, her slim fingers dipped beneath the hem of the black lace and she let out a soft, breathy moan, her hips bucking against her fingers.

He was horrified by what he was watching but he couldn't stop looking either – it was like watching a car accident in terrible slow motion. His sister was still on the phone, her eyes closed and her lips slightly parted in ecstasy – he could see her fingers dipping and moving through the semi-sheer lace and felt a sudden, almost overwhelming urge to storm into her room, tear her panties off and plunge himself into her body. He could feel himself twitching and getting hard, the bulge in his pants increasing in size as he heard her soft giggles and her breathy moans. He could see the pleasure on her face and hated that it was Kaito's words which made her look this way instead of _him_ – he had no doubt that he could make Rin feel _much_ better than her own fingers could. His shaft throbbed.

He whipped away from the crack in the door, hurrying back to his own room. Almost feverishly, he slipped his pants down to his ankles and grasped himself, ensuring that the door was firmly locked before he proceeded with what he wanted to do. Holding himself tightly, he closed his eyes and leant back against the wall, bringing to mind his sister's face as she moaned and squirmed in her bed. He imagined that he was on top of her, plunging himself into her wet, slick warmth, and his hand pumped faster, a soft whimper escaping his clenched teeth. He imagined himself pounding hard and fast into her tight, firm body and it didn't take him long before he groaned and found his release, making a mess all over his hands. Shaking from the raw pleasure, he slumped down on top of his desk and scrabbled for a tissue, wiping his seed up with trembling fingers. He hated himself.

What did he just _do_? He had masturbated to his sister. Like it wasn't bad enough that he had seen her touching herself – now, he was so horny that he wanted to watch more, he wanted to touch himself again. His shaft twitched, clearly still eager, and he looked down at himself in disgust. He shouldn't even have been spying on Rin. He shouldn't have been watching Rin doing something so private, especially not while she was talking to her boyfriend…the thought of Rin with another boy was like cold water being splashed across his face, and he looked down at himself as he suddenly went limp, his body clearly not enjoying the idea as well. He gritted his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut. Well, he certainly didn't like his sister being with another guy, but what else could he do?

After all, Kaito was his friend, and Len, being Rin's twin, shouldn't even be _liking_ her in the first place. He was not supposed to be having any romantic feelings whatsoever for his twin sister – she was born with him and he had seen her his whole life, for God's sake. He ought to be sick of her face by now. Looking at her was like looking at himself. His earlier satisfaction from the family dinner having dissipated, he hastily grabbed a pair of track pants and a black hoodie, intending to go out for a quick stroll around the neighbourhood. He wasn't going to be able to sleep after this, and he wasn't in the mood to lie restless in bed until he fell asleep, the memory of Rin's gasps still in his head.

His mother was downstairs, working in the living room. His father was sitting next to her, his laptop resting on the coffee table, clearly abandoned for now, while his head lay on his mother's lap. His mother was on the phone again, her free hand stroking his father's hair. It was a sweet sight, and Len took a moment to watch them with each other. They were clearly so at peace, despite the stress they had been facing at work lately. He wondered if he would be able to find such peace. That small pause at the staircase was enough time for his father to notice him, and the man sat up, glancing at Len in clear surprise. "Len? You're going out? At this hour?" he asked, loud enough for Len to hear him but not so loud that it would interrupt his wife's phone call. Len glanced at the clock.

"It's only half past twelve. I couldn't sleep," he answered, walking towards his father and keeping his voice low. His mother glanced at both of them, but didn't break her conversation on the phone. She sounded mildly annoyed, and Len didn't want to know what incident the unfortunate person on the other side must be reporting was. "I'll be fine, I'll stick to the lit areas and be back before one," he promised, though inwardly he smirked. He had walked the dark streets of this suburb more times than he could count, and he knew perfectly well how to defend himself here. Besides, nothing ever happened in this sleepy place. The inner city was dangerous. The suburbs, not really.

"Well, all right. Be sure you're back by then," his father whispered, holding his gaze. "It's a school night, and I won't have your teacher calling me to report your tardiness yet again. You understand me, Kagamine Len?" Len nodded, and his father went back to resting his head on his mother's lap. Len quickly slipped out of the house, not forgetting to grab the keys from the hook behind the door, and found a cool breeze caressing his face, the dark velvet of night wrapping around him like a glove. It was familiar and peaceful, especially now that the neighbourhood was quiet and most lights were switched off. Len liked this place at night. It was the kind of quiet peace that let you hear your own thoughts and think about the things you did in the day. It gave you the chance to contemplate.

He started to walk. It wasn't the first time he was taking a midnight stroll around the suburbs, and whenever he went out so late he always took the same route through the place. Up and down the streets and then, when he reached the last street, he cut across through the junction until he was back where he started. It didn't really matter to Len where he walked or what he saw – he liked the process of walking without having to think about a destination. It helped him to sort through his thoughts, and he knew that right now, he most definitely had to think about what he just did.

It was wrong, it was definitely wrong, and he was stupid. He was stupid to have given in to the urge to touch himself, just because he saw his sister touching _herself_. It wasn't even his name she was moaning, and he knew that technically he shouldn't want her to think of him that way at all, but he had been living with this dark, perverse desire for so long that when he saw his sister masturbate, his will just crumbled entirely. He rubbed the back of his hand against his eyes, utterly disgusted at himself, but there was a small part of him that most certainly did not regret his actions. He hated that part of himself. It was the same part which convinced him that sleeping with girls was fun, was good, would help him relax…would help him find himself. Now he was just a hopeless idiot who had gotten himself into a vicious downward spiral. What the hell was he even doing with his life, really?

He walked along the streets with his hands shoved in his pockets, putting his hood up against the breeze. It got stronger the further he walked. He looked up at the night sky, seeing the stars scattered across the inky black, and thought that they didn't really look much like his ceiling anymore. His artistic talents as a young boy hadn't really been up to par. Or maybe it wasn't that the stars had changed or moved. Maybe he was the one who changed, and because of that everything he saw changed too. He must have changed in some way; something must have _made_ him change because he knew there was a point in his past where Rin was truly nothing but a sister to him. When did the sibling affection change into something different? He really couldn't remember anything.

This was why he was so desperately trying to unlock the secret of that music piece. He couldn't help but think that the score was the piece to that puzzle, the key to the elusive memory he had been trying so hard to retrieve. If he knew _why_ or _when_ he fell in love with his twin, surely that would give him a clue as to how to _stop_. He wanted to be normal. He didn't want to feel any attraction to his sister, be it romantic or sexual. If only there was a way to unlock the music score as soon as possible. But he couldn't just let anyone help him; he had such a private reason for why he wanted to finish the music piece, and to just let someone he didn't know well help him with it seemed intrusive.

He looked up from the pavement, aware he had walked quite a distance already. He found himself in front of a house, the ground floor completely dark while the first floor had a single window lit up. He blinked in surprise – he remembered seeing this place just last week, and back then the "For Sale" sign had still been stuck on the front yard. Someone must have just recently moved into the house then. He wondered who it could possibly be, when he caught some movement from the lit window on the first floor. He saw a girl walk towards the window and stare out at the night sky for a while, thankfully never looking down to the opposite street to see him standing there, gaping at her. He couldn't see much of her features since she was standing with her back towards the light, and all he could see was her silhouette, but he could see the curve of her figure and knew it was a girl.

He saw the slope of her shoulders and suddenly remembered his gaze tracing over the exact same slope just this afternoon in music class. He frowned – surely it couldn't be that coincidental. But before he could look again to confirm his suspicions, the girl disappeared from the window, and he was left standing there and watching her house intently, weighing the odds of Hatsune Miku moving into the house just a few lanes away from his. He was really very curious, plus his self-disgust at his actions earlier propelled his reckless decision – he walked up to the house and knocked on the door.

After the echoes of the knock faded away, there was nothing but silence, and after a while Len began to think that the person inside the house was not going to answer the door. He thought about whether he ought to knock again, but the heady recklessness was fading from his system and he was now thinking about what a stupid thing he had just done. There was no way the girl inside would just open the door for a random stranger. Shrugging, he decided that it would be best for him to head on home, but just as he turned away from the door, he heard the wood creak and he whipped back around, searching the gaze of a very, very surprised Hatsune Miku. She was staring straight at him.

He didn't know what to say, so for a while the two of them just watched each other. She was dressed in a thin white nightie, one of the silky straps slipping down her pale, bare shoulder. Her long hair was loose and flowing, no longer in the tight braids he saw this morning, and her eyes were even more droopy than usual – she must be preparing to wind down for the night. He forced himself to speak first. "Well, hi," he managed, "I saw that this house was finally sold and I was just curious about who had moved here. I…I live a few streets down from here. Didn't expect that it was you."

"Kagamine Len," she said softly, her gaze still darting from feature to feature of his face, studying it. He was beginning to fidget, the awkwardness of their situation getting to him. "Well, now you know who lives here," she said abruptly, backing away and preparing to close the door, "you should go back home now, it's late and we have school tomorrow." But before she could fully close the door, he stuck his foot in the gap, stopping the door from shutting. His arms shot out, trying to prevent her from retreating inside, and she opened the door again, mild annoyance mixed with curiosity in her expression. She clearly wanted to know what he was doing here, and to be honest, he had no idea. But he didn't want to go home so soon, so he would stay here for as long as he could.

"I…I decided that maybe we can work on the score I have," he blurted out, that being the first thing he could think of which would probably pique her interest. She raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued, and he went on, almost babbling in his haste. "I know I can't do it alone, and you seem like you're pretty good at music too. So I guess I don't mind having a partner. But…" he hesitated here, his mind having finally caught up with his mouth, making him realise the gravity of exactly what he was saying. "You have to promise that you won't tell a _single soul_ about what I'm composing, not even your parents or your boyfriend or anyone close to you. This is just between you and me, okay?" he held her gaze firmly. "It's really important to me, I hope you understand," he added.

She pursed her lips, clearly thinking over what he was saying. Some part of him still couldn't believe that he had stumbled across Hatsune Miku's house – the girl which, only this afternoon, he had decided he would attempt to seduce – during a midnight walk to clear his head. This night had just been a whole series of strange coincidences. He also thought about what he was proposing here, and hoped that he wouldn't regret his impulsive invitation. "All right, I won't breathe a single word about your score to anybody," she finally said, green eyes glancing up to meet his gaze. She looked almost defensive. "What's so special about this compared to your other songs?" she asked him.

He looked at her, then looked around him, one arm absent-mindedly reaching up to rub the other – even through his hoodie, he was starting to feel cold. The night breeze was picking up a little, and the air went from pleasantly cool to mildly chilly. She noticed. "Oh, I'm sorry! Do come in. But let's make this quick, I wanted to turn in since we have school tomorrow," she stepped aside and he slipped past her, a corner of his mind awed at how no-fuss she was and how well she handled this whole encounter. He was sure any other girl would have overreacted about someone showing up outside her house and suddenly throwing out an offer to collaborate on a musical project. She must have really wanted to see the score he had hidden. Why was she so interested in this one work?

But he didn't let any of those inner thoughts show up as he walked into the living room, turning back to smile at her knowingly. "Oh, don't worry," he blinked innocently as she closed the door, turning around to face him with narrowed eyes. "If you want me to be quick, then quick I shall be."


	4. Chapter 4

Len sometimes wondered if he was rash or just plain stupid. Of course, knocking on a stranger's door past midnight and leaking out one of his most closely guarded secrets weren't the stupidest things he had ever done…but he had to admit that they ranked pretty high on the list.

Miku was sitting opposite him, holding on to a cup of steaming hot cocoa. He had a cup of his own too, but it was resting before him on the glass coffee table, completely untouched. He felt out of his element here – this whole house was so sleek and modern and it was completely unlike what he was used to. His house was vintage and rustic, with just the perfect touch of homeliness to it. His house was one that felt _lived in_. Miku's house was cold and perfect, but at the same time so untouchable.

But that wasn't surprising. She had only moved in here recently, and to be honest Len couldn't actually remember ever seeing another family here before. He vaguely remembered a young businessman snapping this house up a few years back, but he was rarely spotted around the neighbourhood since he was always jetting off elsewhere for work. Few people had passed through the front door of this house. "So…where are your parents?" he asked, sounding unbelievably awkward. He normally did not sound this uncertain about himself. He was smooth and suave, but she was the first girl who had ever rejected him so bluntly and he wasn't fully recovered yet.

"They flew back to our old house overseas. There are a few more matters they had to clear up there, and then they'll be back here. Hopefully we're settling here for good, but I don't intend to move away even if they do. I'm old enough to look after myself," Miku answered primly, taking a sip from her cup. He stared intently at the dark brown liquid in his own cup, two marshmallows floating on top of the surface. He didn't really know how to begin a conversation with her, but he really appreciated her hospitality. The heat of the cup warmed his hands up perfectly, and he was just waiting for the hot chocolate to cool down a little before he drank it. He had a very sensitive tongue.

"That's good," he answered absentmindedly, silence falling between them again. He looked around the living room, curious about the place she lived in. There was a flat screen television in front of the coffee table, and he was seated on a sleek leather armchair. Miku was curled up on the long sofa next to his chair, which was made from the same glossy black leather. The wallpaper was a totally pristine white, but the soft lighting made everything seem a little bit yellow. There were potted plants situated strategically around the room, making it seem slightly more welcoming. He looked down at the floor and saw wooden planks, perfectly cut and spaced and largely hidden by the fluffy white rug beneath his feet. Miku certainly lived in a comfortable looking house, even if it didn't have the same homey vibe as his. "And how did you find school today?" he continued making small talk.

"It was fine," she shrugged, blowing a little on the surface of her hot chocolate, her pale hands cupping the warm ceramic. She was watching him with something almost like suspicion in her eyes, but when he turned to look directly at her she dropped her gaze towards her lap. "I learnt some of these things in my previous school already, actually. This school is slower," she ran the tip of her finger around the rim of her cup, still carefully refusing to meet his gaze. "And everyone here seems to be pretty nice. I shared the same History class with your sister, I think. She looks just like you."

The mention of his sister sent a jolt through his body and he unwillingly thought back to what he saw just an hour ago. He coughed, hoping that his face wasn't turning red. "Yeah, my sister is Kagamine Rin. We're twins. She's the older one," he didn't know what else to say. Miku looked at him now as though she wanted to say something, but instead she averted her gaze again, this time looking at the glass coffee table. Her lips were pressed firmly together. "Okay, so you wanted to know about my score, right?" he finally said. No point in both of them dancing around this topic and pretending that they were good friends. She looked up then, something akin to relief flooding her green eyes.

"Yes, I'm really curious about it," she started, setting her cup down. At the same time, he reached out for his hot cocoa, inhaling the bittersweet scent of dark chocolate. His marshmallows were starting to absorb the chocolate, and they looked all puffy. "I can swear I've seen something like that before somewhere. I heard it once…when I was little…in a movie or something, I don't know," she pursed her lips, thinking hard as he took a sip of his drink. "But I really loved that song, that's what I remember. I couldn't recall the tune but when I saw your music sheet, something just _clicked_."

He lifted an eyebrow. "A movie?" he echoed. He didn't think that his special melody had ever been in any movie. Miku shrugged gracefully, settling back in her chair with her hands clasped loosely on her lap. She looked very relaxed, almost haughty, but her droopy eyes stopped her from seeming too cocky. It was a difficult feat to pull off – he knew that if he had been taking the same position in this armchair, he would look like an arrogant jerk. "I don't think this song was ever in a movie. I would know. I've been trawling through years after years of video and film…nothing showed up."

She frowned at that. "I know there's a connection to a movie or drama of some sort, though. That's where I remember hearing it, or at least what I think it is," she yawned then, lifting her hand to cover her dainty mouth. It was a very pretty, delicate sort of yawn, and suddenly he realised that it was already past one in the morning and she was probably tired. "I'm sorry that we have to cut this discussion short, but I'm too exhausted to think properly at the moment. Is it okay if we talk about this after school tomorrow?" she ran her fingers through her hair, raking her fringe away from her face. He hesitated. He wouldn't be free tomorrow, though he did want to continue talking to her.

"I can't make it. I have an appointment tomorrow in the evening," he said apologetically, feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket. Sliding it out of his track pants, he saw he had three missed calls from his mother and a single text message telling him to come home soon. He hadn't noticed all that, not with him being fascinated by Miku's house and then feeling awkward about talking to the girl. She bit her lip, looking like she wanted to ask him something, but once again she held herself back. He watched her for a bit, but when it didn't seem like she would say anything he finally continued. "I can show you the sheet during lunch break though, or if we share any classes tomorrow. What do you have?" his Thursdays were a lot shorter than Wednesday, so he could probably find some time.

"Not much. I have Film Studies and Art History, then a lunch break followed by Math. Then another short break and gym class, and I'm done with school after that," she fiddled with a few strands of her long hair, watching him as he frowned, trying to match his own schedule to hers. "My lunch break is two and a half hours long, from half past eleven to one in the afternoon. I have double periods for Film Studies and Art History," she mentioned. He smiled, having found a common time.

"I can meet you at twelve. My lunch break starts then," he finished the cup of hot cocoa, licking his lips to get the chocolate off his mouth. "Well…thanks for the drink," he motioned with the empty cup. She nodded and he thought he saw a small smile cross her lips, and then they both rose from their chairs and he was standing in the middle of her living room, wondering how he was supposed to just… _leave_. It felt so strange to say goodbye and just go, since she was a girl and whenever he was alone with a girl they would do _much more_ than just talk and then walk out of the house.

"No problem," she held her hand out and he passed her the cup, sticking his free hand into the pocket of his track pants. His phone was a cold, hard surface against his fingers, and as he held on to the edge he felt his phone buzz again. Probably another message from his mother. "Do you need me to see you out?" she offered, sweeping her teal hair over one shoulder, her gaze never leaving him.

"It's fine, I'll see myself out," he hastily told her, not really wanting to spend any more time in her presence, at least not for tonight. She nodded, and he headed down the hallway towards the door, feeling a sort of burden being lifted from his shoulders. It was too much pressure, staying here and making small talk with this girl he barely knew. It wasn't a routine he was comfortable with – he never really had to hold a conversation with anyone, normally he just smiled and whispered a few words and then their clothes would be off and he would leave, silent and mysterious, before dawn.

But he knew he couldn't do that with Miku. She was much, much too guarded around him. And she most likely wasn't interested at all in him – a truth, but one that was difficult to admit, nevertheless. "I'll see you in school later then," he glanced back at her. She had followed him to the doorway of the living room and was looking at him from the other side of the corridor. "Have a good night," he muttered, before turning around and letting himself out. She didn't say anything in response, and when he was outside the house he felt the cool night air against his face and he let out a quiet sigh.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, he made the trek from Miku's place to his own house, which was two streets down from this one. The wind blew his blond hair back and forth, making him regret not tying his hair up before he left the house. Yanking up his hoodie to protect his exposed face from the night breeze, he shivered a little in his thin jacket and track pants and moved a little faster, eager to return to the comforting warmth of his room. He was sure Rin was asleep by now, since it would be two o'clock soon. That was good; he wouldn't have to face her quite so soon then.

His parents were probably up and still working. He would tell them the truth about where he had gone – his parents were pretty lenient so they wouldn't mind, though of course they didn't know what he was doing most of the time when he was outside. They were liberal, but not to _that_ extent – he was sure his father would have a fit if he was aware that his son was going around sleeping with any woman who wanted him. For just this aspect, he was thankful that his parents often worked odd hours and this family dinner they had was usually pretty rare. It would be difficult for him to explain his frequent late night jaunts and why he returned home so late even on school nights, otherwise.

His house was approaching, the windows still lit, and he found his footsteps slowing a little, the sudden urge to dawdle a while longer outside making him tarry. "I didn't get her number," he realised aloud, followed by a soft groan of annoyance. Now how was he supposed to contact her during lunch? She might not be in the cafeteria when he was released from class, since her break was so long. Oh well. It would be better for him if they couldn't find each other, actually. Then he could keep his music score secret for just a while longer. It would take a while before he got used to the idea that this melody was no longer exclusive to him. It felt like he had to give up part of himself.

Reaching his house, he quickly unlocked the front door and slunk in, hoping to get past his parents unnoticed – they were still in the living room. However, his eagle-eyed mother, who was now curled up against his father and idly watching something on television, spotted him the moment he stepped inside and beckoned him over. Sighing to himself, he ambled over and stood next to the couch, awaiting a lecture from his parents. His father was now working on something on his laptop, so he didn't look at Len, but he did acknowledge his son's return home with an absentminded nod. His mother turned around, regarding him with something almost like uncertainty on her face.

He could see Rin in his mother's face, and he could see himself too. "We know you've been doing well in your schoolwork, so I won't lecture you about sleeping late and how that would affect your grades. You're old enough, responsible enough, to understand what your grades mean for your future," his mother began, and he could see her wring her hands, as though nervous. He frowned – suddenly, this talk seemed to be a lot more than just a warning against him staying out late. "It's just that your father and I have been talking about the past, and it suddenly occurred to me that…that we don't know how much you've progressed since _that_ incident, you know? We never really wanted to bring it up because we didn't know if you even still remember, but you weren't answering your phone and I was…call it paranoia, but I was so afraid that _something_ happened…" she ended with a light sob.

Len blinked, stunned. He didn't really know what to say, watching as his graceful mother hiccupped slightly, wiping her fingers underneath her eyes. His father looked up then, rubbing his hand across her back comfortingly, but he didn't deviate fully from his work – his whole family was rather used to his mother's theatrics. She was just a _tad_ melodramatic, but Len knew she was just concerned about him. "I'm fine, Mother. Really. And I do remember that incident," he knew which one she was talking about. There could only be one thing in their past that his entire family referred to in such a manner – such a secretive, furtive manner, as though just the mention of _this_ incident would curse them somehow. "There are rarely cars out here late at night. And I'm old enough to be careful."

She nodded, still wringing her hands, and his father glanced up again, this time looking right at him. "We know you'll be careful. And we don't mind you staying out late at night. You're a boy, after all," his father said this with a casual dismissiveness that would probably offend some people, but he was used to this preference. His family was pretty modern with their thinking but they still adhered to the idea that boys were safe outside late at night; girls were not. Rin had a strict curfew and she often complained to him about how overprotective their parents were of her. Of course, Len thought that was rather silly. Rin was even more capable of looking after herself than he was. "But we were hoping that you would wear…lighter colours when you're outside at night," he indicated Len's fully black outfit, which made him blend into the night as though he was nothing but a shadow. "Just so that headlights would, you know…reflect off you. We'd rather not tempt Fate."

Len slowly nodded. "Yeah, I understand. I'll keep that in mind in the future," he reached up to scratch the back of his head, a yawn gracing his lips. He was beginning to feel a little tired. "I'll let you know where I'm going and everything as well," if they happened to catch him slipping out, that was. He understood and appreciated his parents' concern – if he was in their shoes he would no doubt be worried for his child too – but a teenage rebelliousness that lay somewhere deep inside him was still uncomfortable with his movements being monitored by his parents like that. "Anyway, apparently one of my new classmates moved into the vacant house a few streets down from here. I saw her so I dropped by to say hi, and I lost track of time…but yeah, I'm back now, so no biggie."

"A new student?" his mother perked up at the sound of that. His mother was a bit of a social butterfly and enjoyed meeting new people. "That's nice of you to visit them. Maybe after my work business is finished we can invite your classmate over, get to know them a little better. And here I was, wondering if you actually had any friends besides Kaito and Piko! I mean, they are _dears_ , but it would be nice if you met some new people," his mother giggled like a child, glancing at his father. Len felt his lips twitch – if his mother was aware of just how many _girls_ he knew, she would have an aneurysm. He knew his mother wanted him to find a girlfriend soon, since he was already eighteen and he had yet to introduce a single girl to his parents. That was probably why she was so excited now about him socialising. He hadn't even told her whether this new classmate was a girl or a boy.

"Yeah well, she's not really my type," he shrugged. "It just happens that we're partners for the music final so there's that," his mother's eyes turned as wide as saucers, but before she could question him on why he had a partner this year when he normally neglected to find one, he cut in. "I'm really tired and it's a school night so I'm going to sleep now, good luck with your…your work," he waved his hand vaguely at his father's laptop and slipped up the stairs, glad to have escaped his mother's questioning. He loved his parents but _God_ , sometimes his mother asked way too many questions.

Rin's door was firmly closed, and even the minute crack he had seen earlier was gone. He couldn't hear anything coming out from her room, so he turned away from her door and walked into his haven, flopping down in bed without bothering to change out of his track pants. He did take off the hoodie though, carelessly tossing the jacket onto his chair. He closed his eyes and tried not to think about the incident his mother had mentioned. Just the very memory of that made his head hurt.

"I do remember," he spoke to his ceiling, feeling restless. His arm was resting over his forehead, and the stars seem to swirl above him in all their cold, childish splendour. It couldn't compare to the night sky outside, but it tried, and he tried too. He tried very hard to remember, but he couldn't remember everything, and he wondered if he was doomed to remain like this forever.

* * *

Miku woke up an hour earlier than she had to, her body clock still struggling to synchronise itself with her new surroundings, so she spent half an hour in the kitchen brewing up a fresh pot of tea. The smell of tea was soothing, and it always helped her to relax a little before the start of the day.

She sat in the kitchen, skirt folded neatly beneath her, her gaze fixed on the white tiles of the kitchen wall. She didn't know how to feel about today. She would have a chance to look at Kagamine Len's music sheet, but she didn't feel…excited about it, not really. She knew she ought to be delighted, she ought to be falling all over herself at a chance to explore her past – but she wasn't. If there was one thing she had learnt when she was travelling the globe with her parents, it was that holding on to memories was difficult and it brought unnecessary pain to herself. Did she really want to dive into a past she once thought abandoned? She had resigned herself to discarding those first ten years of her childhood. Why was she bringing that up again, and undoing her careful work from all these years?

She lifted the smooth dark ceramic to her lips, taking a sip of tea. It was green tea – she had chanced upon green tea in one of the countries they lived in prior to this, and she had fallen in love with the slightly bitter, aromatic taste of the liquid. When she came here, the first thing she had done was source for green tea, and although the only thing she found were the commercial packet kind with barely any taste to them, she was glad. It was better than nothing. Closing her eyes, she savoured the taste of the tea – almost bland, yet not quite, a sharp undercurrent of taste dancing on her tongue as she rolled the tea experimentally around her mouth. It would do. Satisfied, she swallowed her gulp of tea, ignoring the heat as the tea slipped down her throat. She still had so much time.

Her gaze drifted to the neatly stacked cups in the rack, landing on the light blue one with the happy smiley emblazoned on one side of the cup. It was entirely too cheesy for her, she hated that cup; but it matched Kagamine Len's hair and eyes so she thought it was funny to let him use it last night. She certainly hadn't expected him to come to her house, and it had almost been automatic when she let him inside to speak with her. It would have been rude to leave an acquaintance just standing outside when she was talking to him, and her upbringing even dictated that she make him a drink, though the whole time she was wondering what he was doing here and what he could want from her.

In hindsight, it hadn't been too surprising. She lived in the same neighbourhood as him, after all. She just admitted that she didn't consider this possibility as she thought that maybe…maybe he had already moved away, and maybe he no longer kept his old habit of walking around the neighbourhood. But it seemed like people rarely broke their habits. She should know – she herself was proof of that. Every day for the past five years, ever since her parents had trusted her to use the kettle by herself, she had woken up in the morning to make herself a nice hot drink. Sometimes, it was steamed milk. Sometimes, it was tea. Sometimes, it was coffee. It really depended on how she was feeling that day.

At night, Kagamine Len looked a little different from what she saw at school. In school, she saw a self-possessed, confident young man – no, not arrogant, and certainly not overbearing. But there was a certain air of self-awareness about him that made him particularly attractive. She could understand why there were girls in class who buzzed excitedly about his every move and dreamt of the day he would glance at her, those blue eyes softening with attraction, perhaps even love. But she understanding their desires didn't mean she wished to partake in them. After hearing what Mikuo told her about Len, she was rather determined to stay as far away from him as possible.

He was bad news. But bad news had this way of…making everyone notice it. People liked to look at tragedies, and Len always had something in his eyes that carried the same sense of melancholy. She noticed it her very first day. She knew those blue eyes, and knew that there was once they were light and carefree. This was an older Len, a different Len whose eyes were shadowed by experience and the loss of naivety. It did make her curious about what happened to him, but she also knew that people changed and it was no longer any of her business to probe. Nor should he be butting around in her business. She decided that as long as he kept out of her way, she would keep out of his, but at the same time she privately acknowledged that it was unlikely Len would truly leave her alone.

He was attractive in the day, but she knew she was pretty too. Attractiveness didn't really mean anything; in society, looks were just another asset to be exploited, a genetic silver spoon in the mouth, a pre-birth lottery. But at night he was awkward, he hesitated, he seemed more true to himself than he was in the day, and that unsettled her enough to make her listen to him. And now, she didn't know how to feel about him. If she helped him with the music piece, if they really managed to unlock it and they could remember what it meant for both of them, then what would happen from then on? She knew the music piece was from her childhood, and not just _any_ childhood – it was from her past more than eight years ago. And that was extremely dangerous territory.

If she thought about it too much she might just break down. All her life she had been walling that part of herself in, keeping it separate from the rest of her consciousness. It hadn't been her intention to do so, actually. But it was a self-defensive mechanism, because when she thought about her hometown all she could do was cry and long for her friends and her home. So her mind blocked it off, blocked everyone off, and she focused on her grades and on taking pride in her uniqueness. Coming back meant that this mental shield would start to disintegrate. But she hoped that it would hold and withstand the test of time. It was a new life now, she didn't need her past to cope here. No one here held any special significance to her, she reminded herself. No one but herself.

The clock struck seven o'clock, and she rose from her chair, deciding that it was time for her to leave for school. Class started in half an hour, and she was already cutting it pretty close. It would take her twenty minutes to cycle to school if she pushed herself a little, so she finished off the tea and quickly cleaned up, tossing the teabag in the bin and washing the cup before placing it on the rack to dry. Picking up her bag from the ground, she walked out into the weak, watery morning light, heading straight for the sleek cyan bicycle leaning against the porch. She liked to cycle and to feel the rush of the wind against her face. As she mounted her bike, she looked out across the neighbourhood and idly, she wondered if she would see Len on the way to school. But she hoped she would not.

* * *

Her lessons passed quickly. She met a few new people today, who all introduced themselves with looks of curiosity on their faces – there was Megurine Luka, a tall and shapely girl with lovely pink hair and calming blue eyes. She was beautiful, and when Miku told her so, the girl giggled, waving the compliment away. Miku wondered if she was called beautiful very often, and found it sad that nowadays, most guys seemed to think that 'hot' was considered worthy praise. Personally, if she was just called 'hot' by someone, she would be mildly offended. She was much more than just her body.

She also spoke to Rin as well, Len's twin sister. Rin talked to her as though they had never met – but that was right, they never really had besides yesterday in History class. It was just funny, looking at Rin and seeing her twin brother. They looked so similar, it made Miku wonder if the two of them had ever swapped clothes and impersonated each other before, just for a day. She would do it with Mikuo if she could persuade him to get into a skirt _and_ find a way to hide her long teal hair. She and her cousin looked quite similar as well, but Rin and Len were… _uncanny_. Then again, they were twins.

"Oh, you met Len!" Rin sounded surprised when Miku mentioned this – Rin had been asking who else Miku knew in their school so far. "He's a bit of a jerk," Rin looked uneasy mentioning this, some emotion flitting across her face as she spoke. "You definitely shouldn't get involved with him. I mean yeah, he's my brother, but…he's bad news," she shrugged. Miku slanted her gaze over to Rin, who smiled and continued as though nothing had happened. Did she know about her brother's doings? It couldn't be comfortable, knowing that your sibling was fooling around with girls and having to comfort your friends after he broke their hearts. She wondered if Rin had ever spoken to Len about that.

"You need to tell him to screw his head back on right," Yamaha Mizki stage-whispered to Rin, who just waved the girl's comments away and continued talking. They were all sitting together at Rin's lunch table – it was no surprise that Rin was well-liked in school, from what Miku understood being the twin sister of the infamous Kagamine Len had its own share of perks. But Rin herself was bubbly and cheerful, and it probably helped that she was tough and could hold her own in an argument. Miku found a strong girl to be particularly admirable, so she was pretty fond of Rin.

The three girls made noises of surprise and shock when Miku told them where she sat for lunch yesterday – given that she wasn't really that comfortable with most people yet, she had opted to eat her lunch outside in the courtyard. She defended her decision though. The courtyard was a nice place to be in, wide and spacious with wooden benches for her to sit on and no one coming to bother her while she was eating. Miku wasn't a loner, but she wasn't extremely outgoing either. She was as comfortable around other people's company as she was with her own. Rin declared that from then on, Miku always had to sit with one of them when eating, to which she finally acquiesced.

After a while of chatting and laughing – Miku was regaling her three new friends with tales of the various countries she had lived in, when she was younger – she glanced at her phone and saw that it was a little past twelve. She gasped, quickly putting her unfinished sandwich back in the plastic wrapping, meeting her friends' confused gazes. "I need to talk to someone," she explained, "we agreed to meet at twelve so I ought to look for him now. It's kind of important," she hesitated. Yes, it was just a piece of music, but it _was_ important for her. And she knew it was important for Len too, at least if it happened to be the same thing as she assumed it to be. Because if it was…

Mizki's look of surprise was becoming sly. "Oh, you need to talk to someone, eh?" she nudged Luka, who was seated next to her and staring at Miku with an expression of curiosity on her face. "Isn't it a little too soon to be interested in someone already?" the girl giggled. Mizki had long pink hair that was just a little longer than Luka's, and bright green eyes that seemed to glow more than her own. It made for a very intense, captivating kind of look, and her knowing gaze made Miku feel just a little uncomfortable. Miku hastily grabbed her bag, leaving her half-finished lunch on the table as she scrambled out of her seat, aware that her new friends and some of the other tables were all staring at her as well. She probably looked like she was running away from something. In a way, she was.

"I'll be right back, it'll be quick," she tossed over her shoulder, zooming out of the cafeteria as quickly as she could without actually running. Everyone was turning around to stare at her, and that was making her feel extremely out of place. But when she finally got out, exhaling in relief at having escaped all those questioning eyes, she groaned and slumped against the wall, wondering at how forgetful she could possibly be. In their arrangements last night, she and Len had forgotten just one thing, and now she stared at her phone angrily, although she knew that no amount of staring would change her current situation. The phone display showed that it was already fifteen minutes past twelve and honestly, she had completely no idea where Kagamine Len could possibly be.

Even though she didn't want to get herself involved with Len, it probably would have been a good idea if she had actually asked him for his number.


	5. Chapter 5

Miku decided against going back into the cafeteria. She didn't want to go back in so soon after dashing away from their table. Besides, she was pretty sure Len wasn't in the cafeteria. She sighed – they had been tired when they agreed to meet today, but forgetting to ask for his number had still been a very stupid mistake. Was she supposed to just wander around until she found him?

She still had around forty-five minutes before her next class, so she could afford to search for a while. Where could Len possibly be? She didn't even know what class he had before his break. A thought occurred to her – she could always go back to the cafeteria and ask Rin to contact her twin brother for her, but then everyone would know she was looking for Len. And after Mizki's suggestive response to her claim, she definitely _didn't_ want to be associated with the blond haired boy. Maybe it would be better if they didn't meet at all? She could always look for him after school ended, or maybe he would drop by her house again. She gnawed on her lower lip, one of her nervous habits.

Maybe she would go to the library. Len had liked reading in the past. She didn't know if he still spent his free time reading or if he devoted all leisure time to his other activities now, but she figured that it wouldn't hurt to take a look. Shrugging, she turned around and tried to find her way to the campus library, deciding that this would be a chance for her to familiarise herself with the school as well. She had a fairly good memory and that served her well whenever she went to a new school, since it did not take long before she remembered how to get to her classes and where all the different rooms were located. But looking around by herself wouldn't hurt either, so she set off, trying to recall where the library was. Someone had told her it was on this floor, but which part of this level exactly?

It took a few wrong turns and some help from the online campus map before she finally stumbled across the library, which wasn't really that far from the cafeteria. She stopped outside and looked up at the hanging wooden sign above the door, where 'Library' was printed in an old, antique looking kind of font. The double doors were carved and wooden, and Miku promptly decided that she quite liked this library. She liked nostalgia as much as she liked modernity, and this was a nice change from the cold glass and metal she faced at home, so with just the faintest hint of trepidation she pushed the door open and walked in, immediately feeling the cold blast of air that came from the air conditioner. It was cool and dry here and, as she glanced around, she saw it was mostly empty.

The library in this school was pretty big, at least bigger than her previous school. Her previous school had a library that was perhaps only a few times bigger than a classroom. This library was beautiful – high-ceilinged with numerous, evenly spaced bookshelves and a whole section towards the back where students could sit at long tables and read or study. There were a few individual tables along the sides of the library as well, lined along the wall from where she stood to the area with all the tables at the back. There were maybe three students here besides her, and they didn't really pay her any attention, two of them looking for something in the shelves and the other sitting at one of the individual tables, wearing a pair of white headphones that stood out against his jet-black hair.

She took a step forward despite knowing that Len wasn't here, curious about the kind of books this library had. She had been to all sorts of school libraries – some of them were filled with fiction and biographies, others only had educational books and there were a few which only had textbooks and a meagre collection of popular fiction. At first glance, this library appeared to have a nice, well-balanced collection of fiction, textbooks and research journals. She appreciated that, it was always nice to see a good array of books in a library, especially the school one. The two people who were searching for books were doing so under the research journal section, so she decided not to bother them and walked towards the fiction area. There were quite a few familiar titles here, and she hummed quietly to herself as her eyes scanned the rows of books and their various authors.

This was definitely a place she could see herself spending time in. There was no librarian at the moment, maybe they went to have their lunch or were in the backroom or something, but it was just as nice to not have an eagle-eyed woman watching her every move, as there was in her previous school. There, she hadn't been able to step into the library without a feeling of dread since there was no such thing as personal space when it came to the librarian. Her fingers brushed against the well-worn spines and stopped as she saw a familiar book by one of her favourite authors – she smiled in delight, taking the book off the shelf and staring at the familiar illustrated cover. She had the same book at home somewhere, but she hadn't finished unpacking all her books yet so she didn't quite know where it was at the moment. This book, as always, was a welcome sight.

It had so much sentimental value for her – this book was part of her childhood. Her childhood had its ups and downs; this book and the rest which came after it were certainly a happier memory. Sighing, she put the book back where it belonged and left the comfort of the shelves, deciding that she had dallied enough and it would be better if she went back to finding Len. He wasn't here, so where else could he possibly be? Glancing at her phone, she saw she had half an hour to go before class and quickened her footsteps, not wanting to waste any more time lingering here. She'd come back soon.

The boy who was studying alone was still listening to his headphones. She was a little amused by him actually since he was right in her line of vision when she left the shelves, and she could see him nodding his head and twirling his pen as he listened to whatever his headphones were playing. She bet he would be singing too, if they weren't in the library. She moved onwards, and when she was only a few steps away from him and the library exit, he turned slightly in his chair and their eyes met. She found her footsteps faltering as she met familiar eyes, the same colour as molten gold.

"Hey, Miku!" the boy spoke first, rising from his seat and breaking the silence. There was a grin on his face as he carelessly took the headphones off, placing them on the table. She was stunned by this sudden encounter – she didn't know he had been in this school as well. They hadn't been _super_ close or anything when she was younger but she knew him enough to remember his name. Mikuo hadn't said anything about him when she asked about her former schoolmates, and she just assumed that he had gone on to another school or moved away altogether, just like what so many of her old friends had done.

"Rei?" she whispered, still aware that they were in the library. She looked at the two people pursuing the bookshelves, who at the moment still seemed pretty unbothered by the commotion. "Oh wow, how are you? I didn't know you're still here!" she looked at the boy from head to toe as he reached up to ruffle his black hair, a familiar chipper smile on his face. He was still taller than her, still as lean and athletic as she remembered. He was dressed in a navy collared sweater and black slacks, and it made him look like a preppy college graduate. It was a look which suited him.

Kagene Rei was her classmate and had sat next to her in class for three years. They talked, but back then it was a little strange for a boy and girl to spend too much time together so they were not particularly close. But they were on friendly enough terms to invite each other to their birthday parties and say hello whenever they saw each other. Miku was also comfortable enough around Rei to borrow his things and forget to return them, and Rei never really bothered to chase her for his missing pencils and erasers. He was in the school's basketball team and was a prefect as well. Teachers adored Rei, and that came in handy when she needed someone to help her out when she wanted to skip certain classes. When she was younger, Miku had been a pretty rebellious child.

"Doing fine! You're looking well yourself," Rei whistled, and that earned them an irritated glare from one of the people at the shelves. "When did you come back? Oh, wait. When did you come _here_?" he leant back against his table, tilting his head curiously. Rei was still as handsome as ever, of course – she hadn't expected that to change. With his ashy hair and golden eyes, Rei had striking looks and it wouldn't be surprising if he was one day scouted as a model. Just a pity that he wasn't that tall, he was maybe only a head taller than her and she wasn't that tall to begin with. She always found it strange that Rei was so pale despite being in the sun and doing sports all the time, but she figured that he either used a lot of sunscreen or he simply had the type of skin which couldn't tan. The latter seemed more likely. Rei, despite his good looks, never paid that much attention to his appearance.

"Just a few days ago. Mikuo didn't tell me you were still in this town. I thought you'd moved away by now or something. My mum told me your parents always wanted to leave," she shook her head in amazement. This was just as strange as running into Len, or perhaps even stranger. Len's parents worked in companies based in this town and they were unlikely to move away, since they didn't have that many other offices. She had sort of guessed that she might run into Len again, so when she saw him she hadn't been very surprised. But Rei's father was one of the senior employees in some large, multinational company and she always thought one day the family would just up and leave.

"Well, they did go, actually," Rei looked somewhat uncomfortable at this question. "My parents I mean. But when they moved away I was already halfway through junior year and I thought, I didn't want to give up my last one and a half years when I'm already going to graduate soon. So I told them I'll be staying behind to at least graduate here, then I'll meet them overseas and attend college there instead," he beamed. Rei was cheerful and energetic – there was something about this boy which just made you want to stop procrastinating and do something productive with your life. He was definitely a good influence, just like her mother always told her. Maybe she should stick close to Rei and convince him to study with her – she would probably score an A on everything with his help.

Then she remembered that she was looking for Len. "Oh, actually I'm looking for someone! Did you happen to see Kagamine Len around anywhere?" she figured that it couldn't hurt to ask Rei. Rei never held grudges against anyone – at least, not the last time she looked – and if he was still as popular as he was in the past, he probably had _everyone's_ number and that would definitely be a great help. Rei blinked, looking startled when she mentioned the name, and she suddenly recalled that Len had a reputation for sleeping around. She swallowed, hoping that Rei wouldn't jump to conclusions – Miku was certainly not _that_ type of girl, and she didn't want him to think so either.

"Len, eh?" Rei stared at her, and she wondered what was going through his mind. She just hoped he didn't get the wrong idea. "Well, I don't know why you're looking for Len, people who look for Len generally want only one thing," he coughed, a sly grin on his face. "But if you're searching for him, he's in the library actually! Just go all the way to the back and you'll see a little door that leads to some place called the Reading Room. He's probably hiding there with some thick book on musical theory. Either that or he's banging some girl –" he abruptly stopped, evidently realising that he shouldn't be saying these things in front of her. "Sorry. But yeah, he's there. Go look for him!"

She thanked Rei, who coughed a little and adjusted his collar, sitting once more and determinedly placing his headphones back on. Quickly, she walked to the back of the library and saw, just as Rei described, a small wooden door with a glass panel situated right in the middle of it. The glass panel, which was about the size of an A4-sized piece of paper, had the words 'Reading Room' emblazoned on it in a black, stencilled font. She peered inside and saw someone on a chair or something inside – she saw blond hair but couldn't be sure if it was Len since the glass was kind of foggy and all she could make out were blobs of colour. Carefully, she opened the door and stepped into the room.

The door automatically swung shut behind her, making just the softest of 'clicks' as it fit perfectly back into the doorframe. The Reading Room was air conditioned as well, but it wasn't really as cold as outside, for which she was grateful. The room was pretty big and littered with giant beanbags. They looked pretty comfortable, and she was actually tempted to run over and throw herself down on one of them, but she caught the gaze of the room's only occupant and found herself swallowing nervously. Len was looking up from his book, a pair of red glasses perched on the bridge of his nose.

"You found me," he commented, sounding faintly surprised. She didn't know whether she ought to feel proud or offended, since this also implied that he was purposely hiding from her despite their agreement that he would show her his music score. "See, this is what happens when you don't leave a number for me to contact. You have to go all over the place looking for me. But how did you know I was here?" now he sounded curious. She pondered, wondering if she should bother to tell him – after all, he was the one who had made himself so difficult to find, and apparently on purpose too.

"Rei told me," she finally said, setting her backpack down on the white marbled floor. Len had his feet propped up on a low table right in the centre of the room, surrounded by those giant beanbag chairs. Len tilted his head, something almost like curiosity at the sound of the name. Did Len even know who Rei was? Rei had been popular in her school when they were younger, but maybe things were different now – though she doubted anything would change much, not when he still had the same affable personality she remembered. "Kagene Rei," she added when he remained silent.

"I know," he sounded almost annoyed, but she couldn't be sure if he really was since his face was pretty blank. "He's on the Student Council, of course I know him. Plus he's on the basketball team. He's a friend of a friend. Didn't know you two actually knew each other," the upward inflection in his words made it sound more like a question, and Miku shrugged, wondering if she ought to go sit on one of the chairs as well. Len was still holding his book open in his hands, but the way he held it blocked the title of the book. From what she could see though, it didn't appear to be a musical theory book – theory books were generally bigger and the book Len was holding was scarcely bigger than his palms.

"Well, we were from the same school when we were younger. He hasn't changed much," she perched herself on one of the beanbags closer to her so that she wouldn't be too near to Len. Len placed a bookmark to remind him where he had stopped, then placed his book down carefully beside him, the front facing downwards so that she was unable to see what he was reading. The back of the book was blank. "So do you have the music sheet?" she asked. This was the main reason why she was here, after all. Len nodded, leaning down towards the black bag lying at his feet.

While he was searching through his bag, she took the chance to study his profile. His blue eyes were still the blue of a summer sky and his hair was golden blond, fine and shimmery. It was tied up into a small ponytail, something he had done ever since he was little. She could see the almost delicate features of his face – the high, arching cheekbones, the long feathery eyelashes and the semi-pout of his pale lips. These were all what she found familiar, but at the same time he had obviously grown. He had the chiselled jaw of an older teen, perhaps even a man, and the lean muscle moving beneath his shirt probably wouldn't be found on the frame of a child. Then she realised that she was outright ogling him and hastily averted her gaze. She didn't want him to think that she was being rude, or even worse – that she was attracted to him or something. He had enough admirers of his own.

Len looked up just then, a black folder in his hands. She recognised it to be the one he used to hold his music sheets. Silently, he passed the folder over to her and she took hold of it almost reverently. She had looked through these papers and she knew how beautiful the pieces were – Len had probably put a lot of thought into these compositions, and she greatly respected the effort that had gone into these. Flipping to the right score, she let her fingers trace over the thin, worn plastic of the holder and scanned through the melody, frowning slightly as she hummed the tune to herself.

Len was nervous. His heart was racing in his chest – maybe, just _maybe_ , he finally had an answer to this mysterious melody. Miku pored over the song with a look of intense concentration on her face, and although he still wasn't fully comfortable with just letting her see the piece, at least he might finally be getting somewhere. He had composed the exact same tune in many different keys and arrangements but somehow, he could never get the correct combination. If it was familiar to her, then surely two heads were better than one. His memory was fragmented and extremely unreliable.

"Yeah…I've definitely heard something like this before. When I was little," she murmured, looking up at him. The black folder lay open on her lap and he was tempted to lunge over and take it back, but he restrained himself. "I think…I think it was a major key. It definitely wasn't a minor, not like what you have here, but the arrangement was similar. The timing is little off too though. The song I heard was more upbeat…faster, yes. You have a pretty depressing version of what I remember," she smiled wryly. That wasn't surprising. This arrangement was set during a pretty aimless period of his life.

"Could you make the necessary edits? So I know what you heard when you were younger?" it might not be the exact same thing as what _he_ heard since they were two different people, but at least with Miku's help he might actually get somewhere. Miku looked a little surprised, but she nodded, much to his relief. "Oh, and actually we ought to get started on the final project for class. I know that it's still a long way to go, but I really want it _perfect_ ," he stressed the last word. "My compositions have gotten the first prize for three years straight and I don't want that to change this year. I'm sure with your help this year," he met her gaze, "our win is practically a guarantee. Don't you think so, Miku?"

She looked hesitant. "All right, sure…" she closed the folder and returned it to him. "Anyway, I can _try_ to make the changes you asked for. I don't know if I can, my memory isn't the best either but if you want me to, I'll try my best to help. Could you send me a soft copy of the score? I'll print it out and do the necessary rearrangement at home," Len took the folder back, sighing quietly when the comforting, familiar weight fell back into his hands. He held it close to him – this was his only link to his past, and he cradled it like it was an infant. In effect, it was. This folder was his childhood.

"You're really attached to your music, aren't you?" Miku asked, her keen eyes noticing Len's sigh of relief and how he frantically clutched at the folder, holding it to his chest. He swallowed, averting his gaze while she stared outright at him – he didn't know how to explain himself, and he couldn't really be bothered to find an excuse for his behaviour either. So he just nodded slowly and she left it at that, much to his relief. Len, to be honest, didn't really talk much to girls. Sure, he was great at casual conversation and at whispering sweet nothings, but when it came to deeper, more serious topics he was at a complete loss. He didn't want to get close to any girls because of his feelings and the knowledge that he would never be able to devote a fair amount of attention to any relationship.

"Isn't your break almost over?" he asked, glancing at the clock on the wall. It was almost one, and he remembered her saying that her break was until then. Miku glanced at the clock as well and let out a gasp of surprise, leaping up from her chair and grabbing her bag. Giving him her number and her email address, she quickly bade him farewell and ducked out of the room, hurrying off towards her next class. Len let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding and set the folder down on the beanbag next to his, swapping the folder for the book he had been reading before Miku came in. He was reading his childhood journal, which he had found just a week back and had always been intending to read, though it just kept slipping his mind.

He had found it up in the attic while he was messing around up there one day. Last week, Rin was having a sleepover at Luka's house so he had the house pretty much to himself, since his mother had a facial appointment in town and his father had to play golf with a client of his. Miraculously, he didn't have anyone to sleep with that day either, and both Kaito and Piko were busy with their own affairs so Len had decided to rootle around in the attic and see if he could discover some ancestral fortune or something like that. Up in the attic, which was extremely dusty and covered with white sheets or plastic layers, he found a box that was stuffed to the brim with children's toys and some other personal items. He figured that this box probably belonged to him and Rin when they were little, so he poked through the box for a while to see if he could find anything worth keeping – then he stumbled across this small black book. It was astonishing to find that this diary was still around.

Len had wanted to read the journal the moment he dusted it off and found out that it was another fragment of his past, but the moment he opened the book he groaned and flipped it shut again. He had entirely forgotten how atrocious his handwriting was in the past. It would take a while for him to decipher what he was writing – young Len had a horrible spiky cursive and the tendency to utterly disregard grammar and punctuation, so even now after half an hour of reading Len could hardly get past the first page. It was shocking, reading what he had written years ago and revisiting that part of himself once more. Had he really been so…childish in the past? He couldn't remember that anymore.

The first page talked about how his mother had bought him a book to pen down his thoughts, since she had gotten one for Rin and Len had clamoured that it was unfair that his sister got one while he did not. It was written with the clear gloating tone of a triumphant nine-year-old, and Len did feel his lips tilting upwards while he read through his younger self's experiences. That side of him seemed so far away, like an entirely separate person now. He was hardly this carefree anymore, not when he harboured such a dirty secret. Incest was dirty, and this just made him feel filthy as well.

He was starting on the second page when Miku came in and distracted him. To be honest, he hadn't expected her to find him at all. He had been planning on visiting her again another time, maybe tomorrow or the day after, and just bringing the folder along so that she could see it then. How had she figured out that he would be hiding in the library? It was one of his favourite haunts, since no one expected the school's flirt to hide among books and old memories. But then, he wasn't exactly a normal flirt, was he? He was like a gigolo who didn't get paid. A snort escaped him at the thought – when put that way, he sounded pathetic, but at least he enjoyed what he did…most of the time.

Another thing he was surprised about was that Kagene Rei knew where he was. He didn't think the Student Council member paid him any particular attention – he and Rei were as different as night and day, and as long as he stayed out of trouble the Council never came to bother him. But Rei was apparently more attentive than he assumed. Len knew that Rei liked to do his schoolwork in the library before he headed off for basketball practice or whatever it was the Council member had to do that day, but Len never greeted him and he thought that Rei never noticed him around either. He wasn't sure how he felt about being noticed by the Student Council. Len would rather stay under the radar when he was in the library. This was his only refuge in school, and he'd like to keep it that way.

Suddenly, the door creaked open and he looked up quickly, startled by the entrance. No one ever came into the Reading Room except for the Chess Club during their club meetings. His blue eyes met golden ones, and then Rei was sliding into the room with his characteristic friendly smile on his face, a pair of white headphones looped around his neck. "Hey, Len," the boy greeted him familiarly, and Len raised an eyebrow at this turn of events. He was sure Rei was here to ask him for something. "So I heard Miku was looking for you just now. You're not…uh, well it would be a lie if I pretended that I don't know what you're famous for, so I'll just come out and say it. You're not shagging her, right?"

The boy seemed almost fidgety. He had a hand in the pocket of his black slacks and his other hand was rubbing the back of his neck; after the initial greeting his golden eyes had averted from him and now his gaze was fixed on the floor. Len didn't know whether he ought to lie or tell the truth. On one hand, he _did_ intend to one day get into Hatsune Miku's good graces – and hopefully in her bed as well – but right as of this moment, the two of them had absolutely nothing going on. And if he lied about their relationship to one of the Student Council members, he had no idea what would happen as a result. Maybe she would feel like he tarnished her reputation or something, and he couldn't afford for her to be offended by him now when he still needed her help. So he decided not to lie. "No, we're not."

Rei seemed almost relieved by his statement. "Oh. So uh, if you don't mind…what were you two talking about? It seemed pretty urgent, whatever you two were discussing…I mean, not that I was eavesdropping or anything!" Rei hastily clarified, glancing up at Len again. "Just when she was looking for you, she seemed kind of frantic? I don't know. I'm talking too much, aren't I?" he grinned again, the same grin he had on his face when he first came into the room. "I talk too much, at least according to the President. But hey, they wouldn't want me if I wasn't so chatty in the first place!"

Len wasn't entirely sure how to react. First of all, he wasn't particularly talkative, so he was pretty much the opposite of Rei. And secondly, Rei wasn't even a friend. He was a mere acquaintance, and barely even one at that. Len didn't share much with even his friends, so he didn't feel obligated at all to tell Rei what he and Miku were up to. But he also got the feeling that if he didn't tell Rei, the Student Council member would just go and ask Miku. She had promised not to tell anyone about the score, but he didn't know her enough to trust that she would keep to her promise or that she would be able to tolerate pressure from someone else, so he decided to just give Rei a watered-down version of the truth.

"We're partners for Music class. I'm sure you know that every year, our compositions get sent to the Music Festival and the top three pieces of the year get cash prizes. So Miku and I are trying to get a piece ready. It's a while away, but…I want to win. _We_ want to win," he clarified, just in case the boy thought he was overly competitive and would stress Miku out or something. Rei nodded, the smile on his face still present. Len was actually starting to wonder if Rei had a crush on Miku or something.

"Well, I'm sure you two will win. I hear your pieces always take first place at the Festival," Rei said cheerfully. Len didn't know how to hint to Rei that he wanted him out of this room as soon as possible, and settled for just smiling and nodding politely. "And Miku is pretty good at singing and composing as well! She composes her own songs too sometimes, at least if I remember correctly. Maybe she was singing for someone else," Rei frowned, shaking his head. "It's been so long since I'd last run into her that I can't really remember anymore. Oh well. Good luck then, you two!"

Len thanked Rei, and with that the dark boy left him in peace, much to Len's relief. He would lock the door to the Reading Room if he could, but the door wasn't lockable, just like most of the rooms in this school, with the exception of the music classroom. He leant back into his cushy beanbag and traced a finger over the cover of the diary again, contemplating about whether he ought to continue reading about his memories, but he finally decided against it – after Miku and then Rei came in, he had lost his motivation to continue. He would keep on reading after he met Meiko tonight. Trying to understand his younger self's scribbling was giving him a nasty headache, and he needed to be clear and alert for Meiko – there was seriously no telling what the woman might try otherwise.

He didn't have class for another half an hour, so he leant back into the beanbag and let his eyes flutter closed. His head was pounding a bit, and maybe some rest would do him good. After one last class he would be free to leave, and maybe he could get his score scanned and send it to Miku then.


	6. Chapter 6

"Won't you stay?" Meiko sighed, her perfectly manicured red nails scratching lightly against his cheek. Len withdrew slightly, watching her as she reclined on the bed, a white blanket half covering her voluptuous body. She was clutching the blanket to her, the sheet _just_ hiding her full breasts.

"You know I don't stay," he answered, flicking his fringe out of his eyes. "Especially not tonight, I have things to settle at home," he added, reaching out to her and trailing his fingers against her cheek. Meiko pouted and grumbled quietly, sulking like a child, and he allowed a small smile to cross his lips. "I'll spend time with you some other night," he promised, though he wasn't sure if he would be able to keep to his words. "Haven't I satisfied you enough for tonight? Don't be too greedy, I can't keep up with you forever, you know," he teased. Her brown eyes slanted away from him, a look of almost defensiveness on her face, but she reluctantly nodded. Relief flooded through his body.

Meiko could be horribly stubborn at times if she absolutely insisted on having something, but it wasn't given to her. And Len definitely wasn't in the mood to pander to a grown woman today. "I'll see you some other time then. You know my number," he kissed her quickly on the forehead, then he was standing in the middle of the room pulling his clothes back on and, a minute later, he was out of the door, standing in the heavily carpeted common hallway. It was a little past one – he had spent a lot of time with Meiko today, probably four hours or so. He had napped a little after coming over, which was one reason why he took longer – that, plus how clingy Meiko could be around him.

Since Meiko came from a pretty privileged background, she lived in a fancy apartment in the very heart of the city, where people never slept and there were still plenty of places open in the dead of night. He was more worried about getting home, since he wasn't too sure if he had any money left in his bus card and he hadn't brought cash out with him. But oh well, at the very most he'd get a taxi, despite the ridiculous midnight surcharge. The city was too far away from his house for him to walk.

He walked down the silent hallway towards the lift, leaving the luxury apartment building unnoticed by all except for the security guard sitting at the receptionist desk in the lobby. The guard shot him a look but said nothing – he was used to the comings and goings of Kagamine Len, who came to this apartment in the evening and always left late at night. Len kept his hands in the pockets of his grey hoodie and tugged the hood up over his head, preparing himself for the night air he knew would greet him the moment he stepped outside. It was the middle of autumn now, and the air was cool.

Outside, the familiar night life greeted him. He saw neon signs and billboards, advertising clubs or movies or hotels for the night. There were still a few people walking around at this hour, some alone like him, others in pairs or in groups. There were tall buildings all around him, most of them luxury condominiums like the one he just exited, and there were quite a few windows lit up in each building – maybe a party or something. There were plenty of parties throughout the year, in fact if he wanted to go to one every night he was sure he would be able to find one. But Len didn't really like to stay out too late, so he usually left the party by three so he could reach home and sleep a little.

This city was rich. There was no other way to describe it. The inner city was still quite dangerous but it was slowly getting gentrified, hipster cafes and restaurants springing up everywhere. A large part of the inner city was now populated by trend-setting youths who knew how to be at the right place at the right time, but not all of the inner city had undergone such a revitalisation and there were still pockets of criminal or drug activity going on there. You just had to know where to look, since they kept themselves in the shadows or had moved underground altogether. But he wasn't interested in that – Len had never done drugs, and he wasn't about to start. He valued his life and health.

Besides, he had another drug that was far more addictive – and _effective_ – than weed or even heroin. Bracing himself against the cool wind – it wasn't quite as cold in the heart of the city compared to his suburban neighbourhood, but it was enough to be uncomfortable – he turned right in front of Meiko's building and walked towards the nearest bus stop. There were still public buses running at this time but very few and in between, maybe one in every forty-five minutes. The last bus was at two in the morning. Usually he was lucky and caught the bus before long, but sometimes he missed it and had to wait another forty or so minutes, just watching the orange street lights reflect off glass and metal and wondering what time he would finally manage to get home.

He decided that he wouldn't wait for longer than half an hour this time – any later than that, he would just grab a taxi and go home. Hopefully Rin would still be up and she would be able to come out with cash for the taxi fare. Rin slept strange hours, perhaps even stranger than his. While Len consistently slept late, Rin sometimes went to bed at ten and other times at four in the morning. He hoped that today was one of her late nights; it had been a mistake not to bring cash out with him.

As he pondered his various possibilities, he saw the familiar creep of bright light across black tarmac and looked up to see that the bus was coming towards him. Miraculously, it was the exact bus he needed to get home, so quickly he stepped forward and hailed the bus. The bus slowed to a stop and the doors creaked open, allowing him to climb in. He tapped his bus card against the electronic reader, thankful when the reader's display indicated he still had enough money for two more trips, and proceeded down the aisle towards his favourite seat on the bus. The bus lurched forward once more as Len looked out for the third row window seat, towards the right side.

There was someone already sitting there, much to his surprise. There were rarely people still taking the bus at this hour – it happened, but not often. He didn't particularly mind taking another seat, it was just that Len was a creature of habit and it just so happened that the third row window seat on the right side was the one he usually sat on if it was empty. Then he paid careful attention to the person who had taken his seat and the surprise he had felt was replaced by shock. The girl turned to face him, and her green eyes widened in surprise as well. Hatsune Miku stared right back at him.

From what he could see, she wasn't exactly out partying. Her face was free of any makeup – though she was naturally pretty without makeup anyway – and she wasn't carrying anything besides a small purse. She was dressed too conservatively for a party as well, in a large oversized sweater and a pair of ripped skinny jeans. Her hair was tied up into two pigtails. "Hi," he said lamely, suddenly very self-conscious about what he had been doing just an hour ago, "what are you doing, out so late?"

She stared at him for a while longer before she finally replied. "I could ask the same thing of you," she folded her hands in her lap, still holding on to her pink purse. He gestured with his hands, asking if he could sit next to her, and after a very brief moment of hesitation, she nodded. Carefully, he sat next to her, maintaining a small distance between the two of them. If he wanted to seduce her, he had to start slow with someone like Miku. If he came on too strong, he knew she would just push him away, and obviously he didn't want that to happen. But at the same time, he found it difficult to just talk to her normally. It had been a while since he had _not_ flirted with a girl who wasn't Rin.

"I was visiting a friend," he lied smoothly, absolutely certain that he didn't want her to know about his nocturnal tryst. "And you?" he tilted his head, regarding her closely. She had just moved into the neighbourhood a few days ago, so she couldn't possibly have made a lot of friends yet. Who could she be visiting at this hour? Or, if she wasn't visiting anyone, then why had she come all the way to town, and so late at night as well? Len was curious because the more he knew about Miku, the easier it would be for him to get under her skin and into her thoughts. She looked at him blankly for a while, maybe trying to decide if she ought to tell him or if she should just not answer the question.

"I was visiting my cousin, Hatsune Mikuo," she finally responded, her green gaze drifting away from him as she focused elsewhere. "He needed some urgent help with a drunk female friend so…he called me since I was the least likely to ask any awkward questions," when she looked back at him, her gaze seemed a little harder than before. "Anyway, you were visiting a friend so late, Len? It's a school day tomorrow, you know. You should save the parties and gatherings for the weekend."

His lips quirked up into a humourless smile. "I think you care more about school than I do, Miku," he wondered at that momentary defensiveness he had seen in her eyes as she talked about her cousin. Something important must have happened, but was it important enough to warrant him pushing for more information? "Oh, I haven't scanned the score yet. I'll do it when I get home, so remember to check your inbox later or…tomorrow morning or something. Whenever you're free," he shrugged. Miku nodded, turning around to look out of the window, so for the time being he remained silent.

Miku's heart was thudding in her chest. She was pretty sure Len had not gone to just _visit_ a friend. He didn't have his reputation for nothing. What he did should disgust her, it really should, but she held a morbid kind of fascination with the lifestyle he led. How could he be so...cruelly oblivious to what he was doing, to the effect he had on all these women he slept with? He returned to them over and over again, forever at their beck and call, yet never sharing any of his feelings with them. He never stayed with them for any longer than a few hours, and when he left he broke their hearts. Len was handsome, too handsome for his own good, and when he willingly went back to women the women thought he must love them, but was simply unwilling to say so out loud. He was wicked in the gentlest, most subtle way, and the worst thing was how he didn't seem to notice it at all.

She really had gone to visit her cousin, since Mikuo had called her at midnight and told her that Kasane Teto was drunk and causing a huge fuss inside his apartment. Teto was Mikuo's very good friend so he was concerned about her, but he had no idea how to calm her down or how to change her out of her alcohol stained clothing. Teto was definitely not a happy drunk, and when Miku finally arrived at Mikuo's house the first thing she saw was the redhead rocking back and forth on Mikuo's floor, sobbing loudly. Mikuo then quietly told her that Teto still had yet to get over Kagamine Len.

Len had broken things off with Teto because she was getting too attached. Well, not really _things_ since they were never in a romantic relationship in the first place – Len had established that prior to sleeping with Teto – but that hadn't stopped the redhead from hoping that Len, perhaps, might care for her. After all, he whispered sweet things to her and held her when she was stressed, and he always miraculously had time for her and he could make her feel heavenly. But apparently Len did the same thing for every other girl he slept with and actually maintained contact with. Teto had never been anything special. But although he established that he was not looking for romance, it was still painful for the poor girl. Teto had been acting up like this for two weeks, and Mikuo was completely helpless.

It was Miku who had convinced Teto to get off the floor and change out of her stained clothes. Miku had brought along a set of her own clothes, along with disposable panties, and half-forced Teto to change into the fresh clothes instead. Teto was slurring throughout about how she hated Len and would get revenge on him, but then she would suddenly burst into tears again and moan about how much she missed him. It was painful and frightening, watching the whole thing unfold, and now as she looked at Len's reflection in the bus window, she wondered how he could just sit there so calmly and behave like he was completely innocent. Ah, but he didn't know what Teto was going through…

Apparently Teto had been sending Len messages and calling him, asking him to come back, but he probably blocked her number or something because he never picked up and he never replied. It was cold and a cruel thing to do. When she was done with Teto, having put her to sleep in Mikuo's guest room with a warm towel on her forehead, Mikuo asked her whether she had run into Kagamine Len yet. When she said yes, his green eyes darkened and he warned her against getting close to the boy. He didn't want her to end up like his friend, and looking at the room where Teto was finally resting, Miku could understand why. She guessed that even after she recovered from the heartbreak and stopped drowning her sorrows in alcohol, she would no longer be able to feel any respect for herself.

Hatsune Mikuo, her cousin, looked just like her. She could swear they were twins separated at birth – they had the same teal hair, the exact same features and a similar slender build. Of course, Mikuo was more masculine with his squarer jaw and his more slanted eyes, and of course he was taller and had more obvious lean muscle, but people always thought they were twins when they went out together. Mikuo lived alone in an apartment in the inner city, near a bunch of cafes and skateboard parks. It was in the newly renovated area of the inner city so it was clean and vibrant, the whole area thrumming with energy, but still. Miku had felt vaguely uncomfortable about being in the inner city and her cousin understood why, so he walked her down to the bus stop and waited with her until her bus came. He thanked her for rushing down and again, he warned her to avoid Kagamine Len.

Miku now turned to look at Len, since his reflection in the window seemed to have its eyes closed. She looked at him now as he lay back in his seat, his hands held together on his lap, and wondered why someone as beautiful as Len would do something so terribly ugly to a girl. Len could have any girl he wanted and he pretty much knew that, so why was he toying with so many? Why couldn't he just find someone good, someone who could spend time with him and love him for who he was, and just stop playing his sick little games? Was sex really that fun? Did he really get a kick out of sleeping with so many people? Miku wouldn't know; she was still a virgin, but that wasn't something she was ashamed of. She thought that staying a virgin was more of a virtue than sleeping with every person she saw.

His eyes flicked open then and she started, hastily averting her gaze again. After seeing poor Teto, she didn't think she could tolerate him staring at her. She could still see his reflection in the bus window and noticed that he looked a little confused. Well, that was good. He deserved to be confused after what he did to so many innocent girls. "Are you okay, Miku?" Len asked. His voice was smooth, a velvety tenor. She could listen to his voice forever, but she reminded herself that this was Len and he was the last person on this planet she ought to get close to. "You don't seem to be quite yourself tonight…" his voice trailed off. She thought over what to say in response. Should she even answer him?

"You barely know me. You don't know I'm like, so don't assume that I'm not being myself," she finally retorted, feeling slightly pleased at how snappish she sounded. Len withdrew, clearly still confused, and she thought that he seemed a little hurt too. That made her feel just a little guilty, but she reminded herself once again that he deserved to be hurt. She wasn't the one going around breaking hearts and leaving gaping wounds. He was far crueller to girls than she could ever be to him. Besides, she didn't want to get close to him. They weren't exactly on friendship terms here.

"You don't need to sound so angry," he said softly. She faltered. She had been expecting silence or an equally snappish retort, not something so quiet and…honest. He sounded as clear and open as day, and his words rang with genuine hurt. "I was just asking because I was concerned about you. You're an acquaintance of mine, after all. It's only normal to ask you if you're all right when you seem unwell, isn't it?" she deigned to glance back at him, searching his expression for his true emotions. Was he lying or pretending to be concerned, with his silver tongue and those seductive glances which so easily got women into bed with him? But no, he just looked sad, his face incredibly easy to read.

She trusted her gut on this one – it didn't seem like he was intending to flirt with her, so she chose to reply honestly. "I was just thinking about a few things. I was wondering about you," she placed her fingers together to form a steeple, resting her hands on her lap. "I was wondering how is it you can talk so casually to people as though you haven't just broken a girl's heart just a few hours ago. I was wondering how you could live with the knowledge that you _hurt_ people emotionally, that some girls cry out for you and you pretend that you never knew them. How could you possibly be so callous?"

Len went very still. Just a few seconds ago he was looking in equal parts hurt and worried – now, his face was carefully blank and he retreated noticeably from her, leaning towards the aisle instead. He looked away from her for a moment, maybe gathering his thoughts, and she went over what she just said again in her head. Did she sound too harsh? But that was reality, and reality was harsh. If Len did not like what she was saying about him, then he shouldn't have done all these things to begin with. Still, it would be a lie to say that she felt nothing about his reaction. She did feel a little bad, but she forced herself to remember Teto and hardened her resolve. She couldn't be kind to Len.

"I honestly don't appreciate that from someone who doesn't know anything personally about me," he finally said, his voice very quiet. "You can judge me if you've spoken to me, if I've told you why I do what I do or if I explained my rationale behind everything – but all you hear and see are warnings and absurdly exaggerated stories about my exploits. You seem to think I get a kick out of breaking hearts. Let me assure you that I do not," his blue eyes flicked up to meet her gaze, and his eyes were as carefully neutral as the rest of his face. She could feel that he had shut her out completely, and that actually made her feel slightly uncomfortable. It was the first time she had felt hostility from him – it wasn't obvious, but the subtle tension was enough to make the hairs on the back of her neck rise. "I tell every girl who sleeps with me that I'm only looking for a good time. I'm only looking for a drug, a _spice_ if you will, to help make my life more exciting…even if it's for only a moment. I'm looking for something that will help me forget how shitty my life is. If they misinterpret that, if they fall in love with me…" he shrugged, looking almost cold, "it's not my problem anymore. Is it, Miku?"

She couldn't come up with a response immediately. Len's words were harsh, but at the same time they held the ring of absolute conviction. He had said it so calmly, like it was the most rational thing in the world. And obviously, Miku couldn't agree with his logic. None of that sounded rational. There were other ways to forget things – he thought that by sleeping around, he would just have a good time and forget about the downs in his life? To begin with, what could be so bad about Len's life now that he had to drown his sorrows in sex? And by doing this, wasn't he just…spreading his misery? Sure, he forgot things for a moment, but when he broke up with those girls didn't he think that they would feel as depressed as he did? What Len was doing could only be called _selfish_.

"What's so good about sex?" she cried out, throwing her hands up in frustration. "You can do other things if you want to lose yourself. You can write or sing, you can come up with more compositions. You have wonderful talent with music, use that! You don't have to just keep looking for physical gratification. There's so much risk…pregnancy, STDs, heartbreak and pain. If you don't want to think about how stupid your actions are, then at least think about the people you affect! My cousin's friend got dangerously drunk because of you! It's been two weeks and she's still binging on comfort food and drinking alcohol, and she cries your name out in her sleep! Don't you _understand_?"

She gasped, covering her hand with her mouth. She hadn't meant to mention Teto, but she was just so angry that the words had spewed out of her, an ugly gush of bitterness. Len now looked shocked, as though he thought he had misheard her and was trying to figure out if she had really said what he thought he heard her say. "Forget that last part," she told him brusquely. "But I really hope that you will change your ways, Len. You could do so much better. I've seen your music pieces, and they're so beautiful…if you could spend your time on that instead of sleeping around, imagine what you could create," she shook her head. Glancing out of the window, she saw that her stop was coming soon, and she rose from her seat, prepared to ring the bell. But before she could, Len caught her arm.

She glanced down at him, surprised at the feeling of his fingers latching on to her elbow. His grip was firm. "It's not so easy to compose music when you feel like shit all the time, Miku. I have my reasons and I appreciate your concerns, but if you want the real reason why I sleep around so much…I don't even tell my friends. What makes you think I'd tell you?" his blue eyes were hooded. "And as for the girl you were talking about, the one whose heart I broke…" he hesitated, swallowing. "Who is it?" he finally asked. Miku gritted her teeth and shook her arm free of his grip, squeezing her way past him.

"That's none of your business," she said coldly. "You've hurt her enough, why do you want to know more? So that you can break her heart all over again? You broke it off with her two weeks ago, Len. Figure out who it was yourself," with that, she rang the bell and dashed down to the exit, climbing down the stairs and stepping out into the dark, secluded bus stop. She let out a sigh only when the bus doors swung shut and the bus continued on its way, taking the blond haired boy away from her. She placed a hand over her chest, and she could feel her heart pounding away beneath her skin. She was still afraid, still breathless from scolding Len, but she had gotten her point across and she had made a grand exit as well. She didn't really hate Len – she couldn't hate someone when she knew what he was like in the past, when she knew he was once different – but she certainly disapproved of what he was doing, and hoped that he would finally consider changing his ways after she told him off.

Len had so much potential. He would be so perfect if only he didn't sleep around all the time. He was smart, his looks were flawless, he was lean and strong – as evidenced by when he had gripped her arm, she could still feel the imprints of his fingers on her skin – and he was a wonderful composer. If Len had not been such an asshole when it came to girls and relationships, Miku knew she would definitely have fallen for him. As it was, she simply felt confused about Len. He was her partner for Music so they had no choice but to work with each other, but how could she handle dealing with someone whose lifestyle went against everything she believed in? She had always been a romantic of sorts, believing in true love and first kisses. Len's blatantly deviant experiences were the perfect contradiction against her ideals. She didn't really want to have pre-marital sex, while Len…well.

She turned and walked down the street towards her house. The bus stop was halfway down the street so she only had to walk a little before she was at her doorstep, taking her keys out from her purse. Letting herself into the house, she closed the door and sighed, rubbing her forehead with her fingers. It was getting late and she still had school tomorrow. She knew she had done the right thing by helping Mikuo out with Teto, but that didn't mean she wouldn't be tired when she woke up later. Hopefully, she would be able to fall asleep quickly. After today it would be the weekend, and she could catch up on sleep over those two days. Until then, she just had to push through the final school day of the week.

Len turned Miku's words over and over in his head. It was making him feel crappy, actually. Her words were pricking at some conscience he had thought long buried. Sure, at first it had felt really weird – and not to mention _wrong_ – to sleep around with girls, but nowadays it was so normal to him that he didn't think twice about it. What Miku said was making him question himself once more.

Whose heart had he broken? The knowledge made him uncomfortable. Of course, he was used to girls crying about him breaking it off but he always convinced himself that this was a necessary evil. He couldn't possibly stay with someone who was too attached to him. Breaking someone's heart now was better than doing so in the future – better sooner than later, after all. But Miku made the issue sound realistic…way too realistic for his liking. He had managed to convince himself that it would be quick and painless, the girl would suffer for a few days but then remember their agreement that it was never meant to be emotional and move on after that. It was supposed to be clean, fast and simple. It most definitely wasn't meant to last two weeks. For God's sake, he wasn't even this girl's boyfriend! Why was she being so depressed over the whole thing? Did she think he loved her?

Some part of him was aware that his defensive thoughts were just barriers against what he truly knew, but he shoved that newfound conscience back where it came from and ignored the twinges of guilt. No, it shouldn't matter to him what the girl was feeling. They had an agreement – he always had an agreement – and she failed to live up to her end of the bargain. It wasn't his fault that the agreement was rendered void, then. He had so many women to handle, plus he had schoolwork to do and other commitments as well. He couldn't just devote time to women who were too clingy. Meiko, he could tolerate. She was only clingy in the sense that she wanted him all to herself, but he was also aware that she regarded him as too young for her and was only using him as a personal sex toy. He could deal with possessiveness without commitment, but not with the chains of blossoming love.

He let himself into the house, carefully sneaking in so that no one in the house would be roused by his grand entrance. His parents, as usual, were home late so they didn't even know he wasn't in his room. Carefully locking the front door, he snuck up the stairs, taking care once more to avoid the creaky stair – it was second nature to him by now, to step over the fourth step from the bottom – and slipped to his room, keeping his footsteps light and quiet. Rin appeared to be asleep already, since there was no light shining out from the gap between her door and the floor, so he just went into his room and took off the hoodie, glad to once more be in the safe haven that was his room.

In the midst of taking his hoodie off however, he pursed his lips and paused. What he told Miku was the truth, which was a little surprising even for himself. He hadn't lied to her, like how he usually lied when he was asked about his intentions and plans. Sure, he hadn't revealed the main reason why he slept around – to distract him from the pain of being in love with his sister – but everything else he said was the truth. He had known she would judge him, but he went ahead anyway. Some part of him suspected that Miku already knew the answer. So why was she making him tell her all this, then?

This girl would be the death of him. Groaning, he tossed the hoodie onto his chair and flopped down on his bed, still thinking about Miku. She was always around wherever he was, with her flashing green eyes and her sharp questions, the criticism and disbelief hidden carefully in her gaze. He could feel her judging him, and he had no complaint against that – he knew he deserved to be judged for what he was doing – but that didn't mean he would stop in his ways. He would continue because this was a drug, and he didn't know what else he could do to make the bad memories go away.

He decided he would scan the score and send it over after school instead. He was too tired, and for the moment he honestly didn't want to interact any further with Hatsune Miku. He didn't want to risk being scolded for his poor lifestyle choices. Still…despite her words, despite her green eyes narrowing at him in anger as she tried to push her point, he still found her pretty. He hated the words which had come out of her mouth for they felt almost mocking, but she was no less beautiful for the things she said. In fact, Miku was even more beautiful when she was angry, her voice getting louder and her eyes widening with conviction and passion. He would have been enthralled if she hadn't been yelling at him. It was weird to think that someone angry could be pretty too, but Miku was. There was something _endearing_ about her, no matter the circumstances. It actually made him wonder if he had finally lost his mind, which was why he was thinking about an angry girl this way instead of reflecting on his choices, but he couldn't help but focus on that part of it all instead.

And another thought…who, exactly, was the girl he had left heartbroken? He really had no idea. It could be anyone – two weeks ago, he had dropped three girls from the contacts he maintained, and any one of them could be the girl Miku was talking about. He shut his eyes, groaning again – what Miku said was making him feel like a jerk, since he honestly had no idea who this girl was – but he forced himself to stop wallowing in self-blame and reminded himself that, no matter what, he kept to his rules. If a girl broke the rules, he stopped going to her, as simple as that. This mysterious girl's heartbreak was not his fault or his problem, and he shouldn't have to feel bad about it at all.

But that didn't stop his conscience from telling him that he was being a terrible person, and for most of the night, Len tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. His vivid dreams were haunted by a pair of green eyes, filled with fury and dislike. For some reason, they looked a lot like Miku's eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

"So, how did your meeting go yesterday? I finished up the rest of your lunch when it looked like you weren't going to come back. Whatever you made, it was really good," Miku turned towards the voice and almost toppled out of her chair when she saw bright blond hair and inquisitive blue eyes.

Then she realised that it was just Rin and exhaled in relief. Rin looked so much like Len that she had to look twice to be certain it was the blonde and not her brother. "It went fine, I managed to find the person but it took so long that I couldn't come back to the cafeteria," she answered, leaning down towards her backpack and taking out her notebook and pencil case. Rin flopped into the chair next to hers, leaning back in her seat and folding her arms across her chest. Their next class was History.

Although Miku had only taken one History class with Rin before this, she was already aware of the blonde's feelings towards this particular subject. Rin thought that History was stupid, and all it did was remind her of just how ridiculous people could be. Miku thought that it showed the power of persuasion as well – entire empires from the past had fallen because the rulers had been swayed and convinced to do stupid things. People who could seduce and lie, people who could use their words to get others to do whatever they wanted, were dangerous. So Len was dangerous too.

"That's nice. Well, I hope our teacher forgets to collect our homework today," Rin shrugged, her fingers tapping against her arm. "I didn't do it and I don't _want_ to do it, since it doesn't count towards our grade. I'm going to make Len do it if she insists on collecting my work, though. He's way better at all this memorisation crap than I am," she sniffed. "I mean, writing an essay about the effects of the Second World War and evaluating source material is pretty fun, but having to search up the dates and the hard facts…that's not my thing," Rin continued, but Miku was distracted the very moment she brought up her brother's name. She couldn't stop thinking about last night.

Rin appeared to notice that Miku wasn't paying attention when she simply kept nodding at whatever the blonde was saying, a vacant look on her face. "Hey Miku, are you all right? You look tired," she leant over in her seat and peered closely at her face. Miku shook herself, blinking rapidly as she pushed her long fringe out of her eyes. Her hair was whipped up into a simple ponytail today since she was too tired to try more elaborate hairstyles, and if someone paid attention to what she was wearing they might notice the mismatched socks, but they were all very small differences and Miku was a little surprised that Rin could actually tell she was unlike herself today. "What happened?" Rin added when Miku didn't say anything. Miku opened her mouth, and found herself starting to yawn.

"Nothing…I just had to visit my cousin last night. Kind of an urgent, uh…family matter, so I got back home kind of late and it's getting to me. Plus I still haven't gotten over my jetlag yet. Not entirely," she admitted. Rin didn't press for anything else, instead leaning back against her chair once more and giving her curious looks. Her friend drummed her fingers against the table and after a while it looked like the blonde actually wanted to say something to her, but before she could open her mouth their teacher swooped into the classroom and Rin retreated. Miku felt a little relieved.

It wasn't that she couldn't handle Rin's questions or chatter, but at the moment she was just so tired. She didn't stay up late a lot, not unless there were lots of projects due soon or it was the week before a major exam. Their teacher went straight into the lesson without bothering to greet them – or vice-versa – and she used the chance to hide behind her book and doze a little, thankful that she wasn't sitting right at the front. She had learnt all this at her old school anyway, the consequences which came with Japan colonising the Asian countries during the Second World War, so she would conserve her energy and pay attention to her other lessons later. Unknown to Miku, Rin kept glancing at her throughout the lesson, biting her lip with a look of concern etched onto her face.

* * *

"I think my brother's lost it," Rin suddenly confided to the three of them at break. Luka, Mizki and Miku stared back at the blonde with looks ranging from surprise to apathy. Rin sighed irritably and went on. "He's my twin, so I am mildly concerned about him even though I do think he's a complete douchebag at times. Anyway, he wouldn't come down for breakfast today and when I left the house, he was still in his room. If he skips any more classes, it's probably going to affect his participation grade. And okay, actually I think even if Len fails his participation portion he'll _probably_ still get an A for everything, but it's not going to reflect well when he has to get his letters of recommendation for university application," Rin rolled her eyes. The other three just stared at the blonde for a while.

Mizki was the first one to break the silence. "And why are you telling us this?" the girl drawled, munching on an apple as she did so. Miku could hear the crunch of the fruit as Mizki bit into it, her green eyes narrowed at Rin. It didn't surprise her that Mizki seemed so apathetic towards the situation – it didn't seem like Mizki was too fond of the boy. The girls in school appeared to be split into two sides, one side which adored Len and the other side which detested him. And then there was Miku, who was stuck in between, still uncertain about which side she ought to go for. She neither liked nor hated Len; he wasn't all bad, but he wasn't the most fantastic person in the world either.

"I shouldn't have bothered with you," Rin grumbled at Mizki. "Anyway, I just wanted to ask Miku if she knew what was wrong with my brother," the blonde turned towards Miku. Miku choked on her fruit juice and Luka, who was sitting next to her, hastily thumped her on the back as she coughed and spluttered, tears squeezing past her eyelids. Rin and Mizki just regarded her calmly until she recovered from her coughing fit, and when she was done Miku looked at Rin, tears still running down her cheeks and a look on her face that must have plainly asked why her. "Well, actually Len told me that he ran into you last night and the experience wasn't…all that fantastic. I'm not mad or anything, serious! In fact, I'm really impressed by anyone who can piss my brother off, but what did you say to him, Miku?" Rin picked up the orange on her tray, peeling the fruit. "It's been a long time since I last saw him that moody," she added, "he usually deals pretty well with stress and stuff."

Miku was honestly startled. Was all this really the result of what she had said to Len last night? She didn't think her words would affect him so badly that he couldn't come to school. Surely Len was able to tolerate a few harsh words, she couldn't possibly have been the only one who ever said that what he was doing was wrong…she glanced at Mizki, who was still munching away uninterestedly on her apple, and decided that she _definitely_ couldn't have been the only one. Rin was waiting for an answer, having almost finished peeling her orange. Miku fidgeted, unsure if she should say the truth. She couldn't tolerate Len's behaviour and she was sure Rin couldn't either, but Rin was still his twin.

"I told him off because…my cousin has a friend who got her heart broken by him and I didn't know how he could continue doing what he does, you know," she finally admitted, staring down at her lunchbox. She had prepared her lunch for the day after eating breakfast, since she didn't normally take well to cafeteria food and preferred eating her own cooking. "I mean, maybe he really didn't know what he's putting girls through and maybe I came across as a little harsh, but seriously!" Miku suddenly exclaimed, making Luka jump. "He's already eighteen years old, he can't keep…messing around with girls like that! Doesn't he know girls have feelings? If someone messed around with you or something I'm sure he'd be upset too, so why doesn't he just stop what he's doing?" she stressed.

The three girls gaped at her in silence for a while as Miku exhaled, trying to calm herself down. She was being too agitated about this issue, and she didn't want the others to wonder why she was so concerned about Len and his affairs although she barely knew him. The others didn't know that she recognised him from her childhood, and she was determined to keep things that way. The smaller the number of people who knew about her past, the better. Her childhood here was not something she herself was comfortable revisiting yet, and letting other people know about her past friends was something she felt strongly against. She reminded herself to pretend not to care at all in the future.

"Do you actually know Len?" Mizki was again the first one to speak as she placed her half-eaten apple onto her tray. "You sound like you know the kind of things he gets up to. The three of us…we tried not to talk about it in front of you," she exchanged a look with Rin, "since we didn't want you to know about Len so soon…how did you find out?" she asked, bright green eyes filled with curiosity.

Miku tried her best to look nonchalant. "My cousin told me," she spoke the truth – Mizki was just asking how she knew what Len was doing, not how she recognised the boy. "You know I used to live here, right? So my cousin and I were chatting about our past friends and then he told me someone I knew got her heart broken by Kagamine Len. Then he warned me to avoid Len and told me about Len's notoriety, and…well, that's how I found out," she shrugged, hoping that they wouldn't ask her anything else. Much to her relief, Mizki nodded and went back to eating her apple, returning to her apathetic self. Rin, however, was still frowning at her, looking like she was thinking about something.

"Len isn't that bad," Luka tried to soothe things over in her usual placid manner. "He does have his merits, though he can be a bit of a jerk…I have spoken to him before. Once he realised that I wasn't interested in him, he became…how do I put it?" Luka laughed. "Quite philosophical, actually. He might be a ladies man, but he's quite intelligent as well. I'd love to have him in the Student Council, but he's always busy running around doing God knows what," the beautiful pink haired girl shrugged gracefully, picking once more at her tuna salad. Miku turned towards Luka, blinking in surprise.

"Luka, are _you_ the Student Council President?" she asked – somehow, it just didn't seem possible that Luka could be the President. She didn't seem authoritarian at all. Luka was like fresh sunshine and flowers and sweetness. Every school she had been to, the President of the Student Council, Union or Committee – whatever the student body called it – was always perfectionist, bossy and fond of picking at tiny details. Luka, with her measured words and her aura of calm, just didn't fit the stereotype Miku had in mind. Luka smiled at her and nodded, and Miku gaped, feeling somewhat shocked. Now that she looked closely at Luka's collar, she could see the badge of the Student Council pinned to the white fabric, and suddenly she felt a little dumb for not having noticed this earlier.

Rin snorted. "Megurine Luka has been the President for two years running. Someone needs to kick her off her spot on the Student Council. I swear, I am _not_ voting for you during the next election," Rin waved her fork threateningly at Luka. Luka just smiled placidly again, scooping another forkful of tuna into her mouth. Miku wrinkled her nose as the smell of canned fish wafted over to her.

"That would hurt my feelings, but we're graduating at the end of this year," Luka pointed out. "I won't even be in the school anymore for the next election, and neither will you," she dabbed at her mouth with a piece of tissue. Rin just sighed and rolled her eyes, putting her fork back down on her tray. Miku thought this meant that she was safe from further questioning, but then Rin glanced up from her food and met her gaze and Miku felt a shiver run down her spine – Rin looked so much like her twin brother that when she looked at her _this_ way, she felt like Len was the one staring at her instead. Rin looked like she wasn't done with her questioning, and Miku cringed at the thought.

"President, we have a situation!" they heard a voice yell out behind them, and suddenly Kagene Rei skidded over to their table, his black hair in complete disarray and carrying a clipboard in his arms. "Piko says that there aren't enough fairy lights for the play next week so he was asking if we can just use bare lightbulbs instead –" suddenly, he caught sight of Miku and faltered, gaping at her. "Hey, it's you again!" Rei exclaimed, grinning at her playfully. "I didn't know you dared to sit with _President Megurine Luka_. She's the strictest President we've ever had the misfortune to have, you know."

"Are you quite done, Rei?" Luka sighed, sounding irritated for the first time ever since Miku met her. She was kneading her forehead with her fingertips. "I swear, I don't know why every year I keep you in the Council," Luka grumbled to herself. "It's like dealing with a hyperactive child who overdosed on sugar," she added pointedly, ignoring Rei's sheepish smile. The boy ruffled his hair with his free hand, the other one still holding on to the clipboard – Miku could see what was clipped onto the board, and it looked like various seating charts and a few lists. "Are we completely out of lights?"

"Uh, well I know Shion Kaito has some fairy lights leftover from his Christmas-themed party. That's according to Piko at least. But I asked Kaito about them just now and he said he loaned them to Len, who apparently needed them for some fancy music performance or something. And I can't find Len," Rei shrugged. "Neither is he picking up his phone. I guess we can ask Gumo? The school technician said the fairy lights we have are the wrong colour too, so we might have even fewer than we first thought. We wanted the pink and white ones, but we mostly have…red and green. From Christmas."

Luka muttered something inaudible. "Wasn't Piko in charge of the play? Why is he only telling us this _now_ when we have just one week left to the performance?" she sounded a little annoyed, but since it was Luka her voice was still smooth and her face seemed completely calm. Still, Miku guessed that she was boiling inside. She had assumed that the pink haired girl was peaceful and fair, but given what she was observing now, it seemed more likely that Luka was one of those terrifying people who bottled up all their emotions and exploded when everything became too overwhelming.

She made a mental note to stay on Luka's good side. Rei shrugged again, this time looking sheepish. "He didn't tell me. But at least he let us know a week ahead, rather than three days before like last time!" he chirped. Luka actually rolled her eyes at this and got up from the table. Miku cringed back a little as the pink haired President strode off, probably searching for the aforementioned Piko. "I guess I should follow her and stop her from terrorising Piko, he'll get nightmares for a month," Rei looked heavenwards for a few seconds, before his gaze dropped to her and he shot her a warm smile. "See you around some time, Miku! Maybe we'll share a class or something," he winked. She felt her heart skip a beat, and then Rei turned and hurried away after the angry Council President.

"Uh, hold on. Miku, since when did you know Kagene Rei?" Mizki dropped her apple in excitement, slamming her hands down on the table. Miku blinked at her innocently, wondering what had gotten the girl so worked up. Mizki looked like she was having trouble breathing. Rin simply rolled her eyes.

"Ignore her, Miku. It's her shipper mind working again. She sees you have the potential to be Rei's future love interest," Rin said dryly. Mizki shot her a look of annoyance as Rin sighed in the most exaggerated way – it seemed like this wasn't the first time this shipping thing had happened. Should she be concerned? She vaguely understood what shipping meant and she definitely didn't want to be paired up with Rei. They were _sort of_ friends, that's all! There was nothing going on between them both, and Miku didn't want anything to happen. She just wanted to complete her academic life and graduate without any distractions whatsoever. Dating and falling in love could always wait.

"Miku knows like, the only guy in school besides your good-for-nothing twin brother who can make girls swoon when he smiles at them. And Rei actually seems like he kind of has a thing for her! Like he completely ignored the both of us today?" Mizki gestured at herself and Rin aggressively, much to Miku's bemusement. "Do not tell me you can't see them together. I think they'd be so cute. Mr Vice President with the new kid – wouldn't it be so _romantic_?" Mizki sighed, clasping her hands together.

"He's the _Vice President_?" Miku spluttered, stunned by this sudden piece of information. Mizki and Rin barely even acknowledged her, but she saw the blonde nod quickly at her question. Miku couldn't believe it. She thought that Rei had just been a regular member of the Student Council. He was just so casual and friendly, and she figured that his basketball training might be enough of a commitment for him. How was he balancing the two? Len had _not_ told her that Rei was the Vice President. She didn't know how she felt about knowing this now. Rei seemed so perfect and she was willing to bet her life's savings that he was one of the most popular students in school. And meanwhile here she was, a stranger to her hometown and hardly with more than five friends at any given time.

"Mizki, you're jumping way too quickly into things," Rin was now saying, her bright blue eyes looking towards the ceiling in exasperation. "You tried to pair up Nakajima Gumo with Akita Neru like, last month. And that was so damn stupid, they hate each other. What makes you think that Miku is even interested in Rei? I'll bet you anything she just wants to complete her year here and graduate."

Miku nodded quickly in affirmation when Mizki turned to glare at her, seeking her answer. Mizki made a soft growling noise, sounding remarkably like an angry cat. "Neru and Gumo just have unresolved sexual tension, and you all are _blind_ not to see it," she declared in a huff. "And how can anyone not be interested in Rei? I saw Miku being all stumped when Rei winked at her! Come on, Rei _winked_ at Miku! He has to be interested to some degree. Plus, have I mentioned that it's Rei?" she went on aggressively, ignoring Rin's attempts at cutting into the conversation. "Rei was sent from Heaven so he can populate the planet with little Rei angel babies. He is one _gorgeous_ specimen of the male species. The only guy more attractive than Rei, even just a little, is your goddamn brother!"

Miku butted in then. "Mizki, I thought you don't particularly like Len," she pointed out, wondering why Mizki kept using Len as an example of masculine beauty. She was pretty sure that Mizki didn't exactly like the boy, at least from what she observed of her behaviour. Mizki grinned at that.

"Excellent observation! I hate his guts. He slept with my friend's sister and she broke up with her boyfriend because of him," Mizki bared her teeth in annoyance. "But I'm not going to let that sully my perception of his appearance. The guy doesn't dare to make a move on me since I'm Rin's friend, and hey, you can't deny that he's really good looking!" unfortunately, Miku had to agree with that.

Rin threw up her hands. "Okay, let's stop discussing Len as though he didn't share a womb with me," she deadpanned. "It's seriously gross to hear girls drooling over my little brother. Like on one hand, I feel like I ought to be somewhat flattered because, you know, we're twins and if he's hot, then I'm hot too right? But _no_ , it doesn't work that way. You won't catch people falling at my feet any time soon. Not that I need that," she paused and thought for a while, "I already have Kaito. But yeah, I've made my point clear, let's agree to stop talking about how handsome Len is. It makes me heave."

"Yeah, let's get back to _you_ ," Mizki agreed, her head whipping around so that she could pin Miku with an intense stare. Miku swallowed. "So tell me, how do you know the angel we all know as Kagene Rei?" she sighed dramatically, pretending to swoon. Miku giggled as Rin smacked Mizki on the shoulder, still wearing that same flat expression as she did when she asked them not to talk about Len's sex appeal. "You are so lucky. Rei is practically oblivious to the opposite sex, you know. I'm eighty percent certain that he has his eye on you!" Mizki declared, still looking dreamy.

"Uh…he's a childhood friend, sort of," she explained lamely. "He sat next to me in school and he always lent me stationery and stuff when I forgot to bring my things. I was a bit of a problem child," she smiled wryly. "He used to cover my butt all the time when I came late or skipped school or climbed over the gate during recess or something. Even then he was pretty much a model student, he was a prefect and on the school basketball team and everyone knew who he was. I guess he's still the same now, isn't he?" she poked at her almost empty lunchbox. This cold pasta was decent.

"So it's a childhood romance!" Mizki leant towards her, intrigued. Miku could see Rin struggling not to roll her eyes and shake some sense into the pink haired girl. She decided that Mizki was probably too far gone into her shipper fantasies. "You know, I really think you and Rei could have a thing," she said after a pause. "I mean, he's like the perfect height for you, and he's so nice and friendly while you're so socially awkward – he would balance you out wonderfully!" Mizki beamed. Miku just sort of smiled back hesitantly, wondering about what Mizki had said. Was she really socially awkward?

She felt her phone buzz in her pocket, and used that as an excuse to avoid Mizki's excited gaze, leaving her to dwell in the makings of her own imagination. She had received a text from…Rin, who was sitting quietly next to Mizki and looking intently at her. She swallowed as she read the short four word message, probably sent because Mizki didn't seem like she would quieten any time soon.

 _Call me after school_. Somehow, Miku already knew it was going to be about Len. Rin still looked…she would say Rin looked uneasy. Not really worried, just uneasy. She sighed and made the smallest of nods, and both of them returned their attention to Mizki, who was still gushing about how hot Rei was and how absolutely adorable he and Miku would look as a couple. Though Mizki's fantasies got a little outlandish sometimes, it helped to distract her from thinking about after school.

Miku most certainly wasn't looking forward to talking about Len with his concerned older sister, but she comforted herself by remembering that she had done far scarier things than this. At least she was going to talk to Rin and not to Len himself.

* * *

Len wasn't sure if his nasty headache was genuine or if it was all just in his head. He had failed to get any proper sleep the whole night and now he felt even crappier than he normally did. He actually had a nightmare where Miku was dropping him into a pit of molten magma and trapping him in Hell.

He was letting her get into his head. Why was he so affected by her words? She was just some new girl…a condescending, critical girl who probably didn't understand the definition of fun. But he couldn't bring himself to think of any more sour thoughts about her, since secretly he knew that she was right, everything she said about him last night was true. And Len didn't want to lie to himself.

All this time he managed to convince himself that he wasn't leaving any lasting damage. He hoped that the girl Miku was talking about, whoever she was, would feel better today after she got drunk last night. He still had absolutely no idea who it could be, and he had given up trying to remember, deciding that some things were better left forgotten. Wincing, he placed a hand against his head, feeling his temples throb against his knuckles. He hadn't gotten such a bad headache in ages, and again he wondered whether he had induced this stupid headache himself by simply overthinking.

He knew he couldn't go to school today, but at least he had a legit excuse this time. When Rin yanked open his door and yelled at him to get his lazy butt off the bed, he just hid himself under his pillow and wormed his way deeper into the blanket. When she finally accepted that he wasn't in the mood to go to school, she had asked him about the cause of his shitty behaviour and, in a fit of pique he told her about his encounter with Miku last night and how whatever transpired between them was depressing him. In hindsight, this probably wasn't such a good idea, since Rin was at heart still an older sister who cared about her younger brother and this would likely end up in some sort of confrontation. But he couldn't help but gloat about how Miku would have to face his twin now.

She deserved it…sort of. Len rolled over in bed, groaning to himself. He had taken some aspirin earlier but it wasn't helping, and the dull ache was so bad that he couldn't get himself back to sleep. Sitting up, he forced himself to get off the bed and walk out of the room, having to cling on to the door frame as he swayed where he stood, his head spinning. He still had to send that stupid music score to Miku. Despite his semi-antagonistic feelings towards the teal haired girl and the nasty pain in his head, he would still do what he promised to do. Len, contrary to popular opinion, did care about his work and commitments. In fact, he cared _too_ much about his commitments, which was one reason why he refused to commit romantically to any single person. It would suffocate him.

The scanner and family desktop computer were in the study room, which was on the same floor as his parent's bedroom. He made the torturous climb up to the next floor, remembering just in time to duck back into his room and retrieve his music folder. Stumbling over to the study room, he yanked the door open and was greeted by a blast of freezing cold air. Grumbling, he made his way to the scanner, switching the computer on while he did so. As he logged in to his account and waited for the system to boot up, he glanced through the folder once more and wondered why Miku kept talking about his exceptional talent as a composer. The pieces here _weren't_ his greatest works, actually. He had better pieces. But the ones he kept in this folder were just the ones he liked best.

She hadn't seen him at his full creative potential yet, but she already talked as if he had amazing talent and potential. He snorted, wincing when the action made his head throb, and set the folder down next to the scanner. He thought about Hatsune Miku and why she just couldn't seem to get out of his head, with that fiery determination and the self-righteous conviction he had seen in her green eyes. Why was he so affected by the opinion of a girl he barely knew? Rin's friend, Yamaha Mizki, couldn't stand him and she made that clear – yet, when she told him that he was a worthless scumbag, he was barely even affected by the venom in her words. He had been called all sorts of names in all sorts of tones, and even the bitterest insults just rolled off him. He was used to them.

But the words of a girl who had no venom in her words, who only spoke to him in a fit of anger and out of a misplaced sense of justice, made him think more about her than anyone else ever did. Was it just because she was also one of the few girls who didn't want him? And that she was the _only_ girl who outright rejected him, who showed absolutely zero interest in him from the very beginning? Even girls in school who didn't like him had wanted him, had acknowledged that he was handsome and that they used to want him too. He could tell because he had watched those girls' expressions turn slowly from interest to apathy. But Miku's eyes, from the very start, had shown nothing.

It was just so strange to not be wanted. And that, coupled with how detailed her description was of the heartbroken girl he cut off two weeks ago, was affecting him too much for his liking. Len was not a very aggressive person – he could be vicious if pushed, but generally he didn't seek a fight – but for the first time in a long while, he felt the need to get a final say in this matter. He couldn't just let Miku walk away as though nothing had happened, as though her voice hadn't wormed its way into his head and her words hadn't gouged out parts of the armour which shielded him from the world, allowing bits of his conscience to crawl back into him from some godforsaken place. He wanted to make her hurt the same way he was hurt by her accusations, but how could he do that? He wasn't sure.

Maybe he would just seduce her and sleep with her, as per his original plan. It seemed like poetic justice to do the exact thing she had accused him of with her – then even she, who thought that her words were justified and that her experiences were helping him, couldn't resist the allure of sleeping with someone who wanted nothing out of the relationship. But that was morally screwed up too – he slept around just for himself, he didn't do it out of revenge or anything else – and he sighed, knowing that even if he wanted to seduce Miku, it wasn't going to be easy. After all, he had decided he wanted to do so since the day before but despite meeting her a few times and having some decent opportunities to flirt with her, he had yet to make his move. Plus now, she didn't like him.

The computer was up and running now, a low hum filling the room. Len methodically placed the score onto the scanner and opened up the relevant programme, copying the score into a document. Quickly, he saved the document and took out his phone to find her email address so he could send it to her as soon as possible and return to his room after that. He paused when he saw he had eight unread messages and two missed calls, and curious he opened them to see what he was missing.

Three of the messages were from girls asking if he was free to spend time with them. He ignored those three, focusing instead on the other messages. There was one from Kaito and Piko each, both asking him where the hell he was and did he think he was being funny, skipping school again? He just grinned and shook his head at that, wincing slightly when his head throbbed in protest. He replied both with a "not feeling well" and went on to check the other messages. The remaining three were all from the same person, and it was a number he didn't recognise. Curious, he opened the texts and saw that they were all from Kagene Rei, who for some reason was asking him if he had fairy lights.

His two missed calls were from Rei too. He wondered how the dark boy had obtained his number, but decided not to think too much about it – Rei knew almost everyone in school, so he had quite a number of connections and this wasn't anything too surprising. He bet Rei got his number from Piko, since Piko was a member of the Student Council as well…albeit one of the more laidback ones. Len sometimes wondered why Piko was even in the Council since he never seemed to take any of his responsibilities seriously, but on the few occasions he talked to Luka and actually brought this question up, the President just shrugged and said Piko did actually do work when it was required of him.

He debated over whether he ought to reply Rei – he knew the fairy lights Rei was talking about, he had them in a box placed inside the piano room – but before he could come to a decision, he felt a sharp pain shoot through his head and he groaned, slumping down onto the computer chair. He let his phone slip out of his grip onto the table. The sudden pain was probably from standing too long; he was starting to feel a little lightheaded, and he had an overwhelming urge to just close his eyes. Forcing himself to stay awake, he checked through his contact details and found Miku's email.

Desperately, he opened up a new draft and attached the document, not bothering to put any subject heading or content. He was sure she would know who he was, since his email address was just his name followed by the domain he used. It was pretty much impossible to confuse him with anyone else. After the email was sent, he tapped out a very quick text to tell her that he had sent her the document, and also asked her to inform him when she was done with editing the score. Throughout all this, he told himself that right after this message was sent he would finally be able to take a nap.

He sent out the text, hoping that both it and the email went through – he wouldn't know, because immediately after he pressed 'send', he turned away from his phone and closed his eyes. He was asleep almost the very moment his head hit the table.


	8. Chapter 8

Miku felt her phone buzz in her pocket as she shifted from foot to foot, waiting for Rin outside the library. Taking her phone out, she glanced at the message she had just received – it was an unknown sender, but judging from the contents of the message, she guessed that the sender was Len.

He was just telling her that he had sent her the email and that he was hoping for updates once she was done with her work. She decided that there was no need to respond to the message, placing her phone back in her pocket. She had called Rin after her final class just as Rin requested, and the blonde had picked up right away. Rin said she was a little held up at the moment, but she would be free very soon and asked Miku to meet her at the library. So here she was, just standing and waiting.

She looped her fingers through her bag straps, watching the people walk past her. It was the late afternoon now, and most people were free from school since there weren't many electives which took place after three, unless people had makeup classes. A few other people she had talked to during her lessons came up to her and spoke with her for a while, but they always hurried off after a few minutes and left her alone once more. She had been waiting for fifteen minutes already, and Rin was still nowhere to be seen. She wondered what the blonde could possibly be doing at this timing.

"Hey, Miku!" she heard Rin's voice calling out for her. Miku turned and saw Rin hurrying down the corridor towards her, looking slightly out of breath. The floppy white bow she was wearing on her head looked limp. "Sorry I'm late, I had a few things to discuss with my Art teacher about my final project but everything's good now," Rin came to a stop before her and tried breathe deeply, looking just a little worn out. "I'm stressed about my final piece since it's just not turning out the way I want it to," she admitted, flopping against the wall next to Miku, "but I still have a few months so I have time to make revisions if necessary. Anyway, are you free now? Do you still have lessons after this?"

Miku shook her head, and Rin shot her a smile, her expression one of relief. "That's great. Okay, I asked you to meet me today because, well…" she kicked at empty air, flicking her blonde fringe out of her vivid blue eyes. "It's because of Len," she looked up and met Miku's gaze, and Miku felt her heart sink a little. Was Rin going to question her specifically on what she said to her twin brother? Len had just texted her, so Miku didn't think he was sick or anything – if he was, then he wouldn't have the energy to send her emails and text messages, right? The way Rin said it during lunch made her think that Len was just sulking over what she pointed out to him. Well, it was his own fault…

"Is he all right?" she decided to ask, just so she wouldn't sound completely uncaring. Rin smiled wryly and nodded, now looping some of her hair behind her ear and adjusting her white bow. "Is he sulking or something? You know that all I did was tell him off about his behaviour. I didn't make up any stories about him," she tried her best not to sound too defensive. She didn't want to sound too guilty or anything, but she couldn't help but fidget when Rin continued gazing intently at her.

"He'll get better," Rin said dismissively. "I don't even know if he's really unwell or if he's just faking it, it won't be the first time he's pretended to be sick so he can skip school…" the blonde rubbed the back of her hand against her cheek, and Miku suddenly noticed how tired Rin looked. There were dark circles beneath her eyes, but then she wasn't sure if Rin always had those circles beneath her eyes or if she just never paid attention to them before. "I'm just worried he'll mess up or something, you know?" Rin continued, looking away from her and staring at the opposite wall. The blonde seemed almost grim. "We're twins but he's stopped telling me stuff, ever since he got into a pretty bad accident when we were younger. I don't really know what he's thinking half the time anymore. Believe it or not, he used to be, well, _normal_. Not as screwed up as he is right now."

"An accident?" Miku echoed, her curiosity pricked. She hadn't known anything about Len being involved in an accident. She wondered what sort of accident it was, and if it had any effect on his sudden behaviour – she did not doubt for a moment that Len used to be like any regular boy, and if Rin was saying that he suddenly became different after the accident, maybe the accident was some sort of catalyst for the change? "What happened to Len? When did it take place?"

Rin suddenly looked uncomfortable. "I'd like to tell you, but I don't think I should," she scratched her head, turning around to look at her again. Her expression was still grim. "What he went through then was bad, so if you're really curious to know you should probably ask him. It's not in my place to say, but well…our mother still cries when she thinks about it," Rin exhaled through her nose. "I get that you're upset about your friend and everything. I really do, I'd be pissed too if I were you. But since I'm Len's sister and I know what happened to him, I'd really like it if you weren't too harsh on him. What he's doing isn't excusable, I've seen what he does to those girls who are stupid enough to entertain him, but until he's fully recovered from what happened back then I try to hold my tongue."

"It's that bad?" Miku didn't know if she ought to feel guilty or not. She still knew that she wasn't wrong and Rin didn't seem to be blaming her either, but now she knew slightly more about Len's current circumstances and wondered if maybe she ought not to have snapped at him last night. It was even worse knowing that when she exploded, all he had been doing was showing her some concern. But his concern scared her – was it genuine, or was it just an act so that she would fall for him and crawl into bed with him? She didn't want to be part of some stupid game. The stakes were too high, she wasn't interested in playing – and most of all, she didn't want to end up like Teto.

"It was bad enough," Rin's reply was vague. Suddenly, she brightened and smiled at her as though their entire conversation had never taken place. "Come on, you don't have anything else to do after school right?" the blonde chirped, nothing at all like the serious girl who had spoken to her about her twin brother just moments ago. "Mizki asked if we wanted to go grab some coffee after school. We can show you around town in you want, since you're new. There's a new shop which opened down from the cinema," Rin was already heading off as she spoke, and Miku hurried after her.

"I don't know Rin, I'm a little sleepy," Miku protested, stifling a yawn as she ran after the girl. Rin walked remarkably quickly – Miku actually had to jog a little to catch up. She hadn't gotten that much sleep last night and she thought that she might want to complete her Art History assignment first before she went out to do anything. Miku had zero artistic talent but she quite liked history.

"Don't be so uptight," Rin said dismissively, not even turning around to look at Miku as she strode through the hallways towards the courtyard. They were nearing the exit of the building, and Miku could see Mizki waiting on one of the benches in the courtyard outside, looking up at the blue sky. "You have the whole weekend to complete your homework and catch up on lost sleep! You're already outside your house anyway. Then we can go home together after that – we're neighbours, aren't we?" Rin burst out into the sunshine, spinning around and giving her a dazzling smile.

Miku caved. She didn't want to admit it, but at that moment Rin reminded her so much of Len that she just couldn't say no. "Fine, we'll go to town," she grumbled, deciding that she would spend the whole of tomorrow doing her work and unpacking her things. Since they had just moved in only recently the house was still largely bare. Her parents wouldn't be back so soon, not till next Sunday at the very earliest, so until then she was alone in her house. It would be nice to have company.

"That's great!" Rin walked briskly over and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her forward. Miku stumbled behind her but Rin continued marching on, entirely disregarding the other girl's protests. Mizki watched them with amusement in her eyes as the pair drew closer to her table. Her white backpack was propped up neatly next to her against the table, and the slender girl calmly sipped at a drink while Rin dragged Miku towards her. "How long have you been sitting here by yourself?" Rin asked when they reached her, finally letting go of Miku. Miku rubbed her arm, whimpering softly.

"I don't know, fifteen minutes? Rei came to talk to me just now," Mizki smiled pointedly in Miku's direction, and she resisted the urge to groan and roll her eyes. She had heard enough about Kagene Rei during their break. "He asked me how I'm doing and all, you know those typical 'I'm a nice caring Student Council member' conversation openers, and _then_ he asked me about you!" Mizki pointed dramatically at Miku. Miku instinctively cringed back. "He asked me how I thought you were coping! Obviously I said you're doing well, with me as your friend and everything," Mizki continued grandly.

"Maybe he really was just concerned about both you and Miku's welfare. He's the Vice President of the Student Council after all," Rin drolly responded. Mizki glared sullenly at the blonde for daring to challenge her theory. "It's not surprising that he's going around asking people how they're doing. Do you think he became the Vice President by not caring about his friends and schoolmates?"

"Hey, he came to ask me about _Miku_. He could ask her himself right? But he didn't! And that means something!" Mizki argued defensively. Rin opened her mouth, clearly about to say something again, but before the two of them could continue their squabble, Miku pushed in between them, blocking them from seeing each other. This was a ridiculous argument and she refused to play any part in it.

"Can we just go?" she asked meekly, hoping they would just hurry up and leave so that she could get home as soon as possible, bathe and take a nice nap. Mizki pouted and crumpled up her juice carton, grabbing her backpack from the bench as she, in one fluid movement, rose from her seat and tossed her crumpled carton into the nearby trash bin. It went in, and she cheered to herself, hopping out from the bench and sidling along behind her and Rin. Miku smiled a little, secretly glad that she had friends here. If she was really going to settle here for good, it would be nice to have friends.

* * *

Len awoke to someone pouring cold water on his face. Spluttering and coughing, he instinctively hit out at whoever was stupid enough to wake him up this way, but his fist collided with empty air.

Wiping the water away from his eyes, he shot up from the table and shook his head, the drops of liquid flying everywhere. Whoever had woken him up had clearly emptied more than just a small cup of water. His first thought was that he had fallen asleep in class and some teacher was employing a newfound, sadistic method of waking students up, but then he remembered that he hadn't gone to school. Looking around in irritation, his gaze landed on a beaming girl with green eyes and pink hair.

He groaned. "What the hell do you want, Mizki?" he turned away from her, combing his fingers through his hair as he attempted to push his still dripping fringe out of his eyes. He could feel cold drops of water trickling down the back of his neck. "How did you even get in?" he added, pushing himself up from the chair. His headache had gotten a little bit better, but he could still feel a very dull ache in his left temple. It made him feel just a bit nauseated, but it wasn't anything he couldn't tolerate.

"I'm your sister's friend, remember? I can come here whenever I want," Mizki set her empty glass on the table he had just vacated. "Rin told me to come up here and wake you up. I didn't want to touch you and you weren't responding to my voice, so I decided that this was the only way I could awaken you," her lip curled slightly as she spoke. Mizki did not bother to hide her distaste for him. But it wasn't like Len was interested in her anyway – he didn't want to be beaten up by Mizki's older brother, who was every bit as violent as the pink haired girl herself. Plus, Yamaha Yuma was pretty good at martial arts so Len wasn't too keen on finding out how he would do against the older boy.

"What does Rin want, then?" he snapped, grabbing his phone from the table. The time read six in the evening, meaning he had been napping for…four hours? Maybe slightly more. It hadn't felt like that long to him – he could sort of remember his dream, it was very fuzzy but he thought he could hear a girl singing, and he saw green eyes and pale skin. But he had no idea who it was, and even less idea whether the dream should even matter to him. He glanced at Mizki, who glared back at him with her green eyes, and wondered if he had dreamt of her…no, the eyes in his dream were softer.

"She wants you to buy dinner, duh. Rin and I need to have some girl time," Mizki announced. "She wants to eat from the deli near the park. And you know they don't do delivery, so you have to go out and get food for us," Len found that as Mizki continued to talk, the throbbing in his head became worse and worse. And here he was thinking that he was actually getting better. He forced his eyes shut and hissed through his teeth, placing his palm against his forehead. "Hey, why are you being so quiet?" Mizki actually sounded a little concerned now. "Normally by now you'd be telling me to get my lazy ass out there to buy the food myself. Are you really sick, Len? Rin said you were just too lazy to –"

"I'll go, I'll go," Len interrupted, glancing around at her. She had her mouth open, one hand reaching out towards him. She was about to touch his shoulder, and he flinched away at the realisation – he had nothing personal against Mizki since he actually understood why she didn't like him but he still didn't want to be touched by anyone, least of all her. "Just…don't talk to me. And don't tell Rin anything about how I'm supposedly feeling," his eyes narrowed. "I'm perfectly fine, just stop bugging me all right?" he left the room so he could change into something else. He had been wearing the same shirt and pants since last night, and he was aware he didn't look like he was fit to go out.

Absentmindedly, he ran his fingers through his blond hair, some locks still damp and clumped together because of the water. He made a face – he couldn't tie his hair, not when it was wet. He knew enough about hair care to understand that tying wet hair up would be bad for his hair, and he didn't want his hair to start falling or something. Reaching his room, he quickly ducked inside and changed into a fresh set of clothes, hoping that the queue at the deli wouldn't be too long. He had no intentions of staying out too late today. Rin always wanted the same cheesy carbonara, and Mizki always wanted beef lasagne. He had bought food for them enough times to remember what they always ordered from the deli. Rin and Mizki didn't appreciate him enough.

He saw his sister watching television in the living room, her arm flung out along the back of the couch and her legs sprawled across the seats. He entertained the vague fantasy of crawling onto the couch in between her legs, but then Rin turned around and flipped him the finger and he rolled his eyes, stepping out of the house without bothering to say goodbye. He shivered. Although there was still some sun, it was fast approaching evening and the winds were starting to pick up. It was strange, he had never been so vulnerable to the cold before. Maybe the previous few nights where he had been shivering outside the house were just building up to his sickness today. He looked around him.

There was some guy walking his dog, and two elderly couples were chatting as they strolled along the walking path that linked the park to his street. The annoying brats from three houses down were screaming on their front yard – he could hear them all the way from here, and he briefly wondered what they were arguing about this time before deciding that he didn't care. Sticking his hands in his pockets, he walked down the pathway that led to the park, hoping to get there before the dinner crowd got too big. The deli was a popular place for people who didn't know how to cook or didn't have the time to prepare proper meals, and Len wasn't in the mood to squeeze with others today.

He should have brought his earpiece out, but he was so fixated on avoiding Mizki and getting her annoying voice out of his head that he had forgotten entirely about them by the time he was ready to go. But a few minutes without music wouldn't kill him – in fact, given this damn headache, maybe it was a good idea to leave his earpiece at home. He tilted his head slightly upwards to look at the sun and had to squint against the faint rays, wincing as the orange light aggravated the pain. He would go home and sleep the pain off, and if it persisted when he woke up tomorrow, he'd go see a doctor.

It was almost a relief when he reached the walkway. It was sheltered throughout, so he didn't have to be under the sun until he came out from the park. As he strolled along, he felt like he was in a world of his own – people spoke around him but hardly anyone paid him any attention, and for now that felt good. Len didn't want to be noticed by people while he was suffering. It would be nice if it rained tonight, since they'd been having a dry spell for a few weeks and he did miss the sound of raindrops pattering against his window. Then he would have a pleasant night's sleep as well, and that would be a great way to start his weekend despite his Saturday commitments.

He got through the park pretty fast, breaking out past the flowers and shrubbery into the next street. To his relief, he saw that the deli was still pretty empty, so he hurried over to the small, inconspicuous building with the red brick roof and pushed the door open, his gaze immediately wandering over to the deli menu. Since he was already here, he might as well get dinner for himself – it was either that or cook, and he wasn't in the mood to cook tonight. His stomach churned uncomfortably, and he was reminded of the fact that he had not eaten the entire day.

The deli was surprisingly empty. He was used to seeing lots of people in the evening, but maybe everyone was heading out to town to celebrate their weekend. Either way, there were only a few familiar faces sitting around, eating cold salads and baguettes. The girl behind the counter smiled flirtatiously at him and he returned the look, though he wasn't really feeling it at the moment. Normally, he would sidle right up to her and ask her if she wanted to grab a coffee or something after her shift was over, but he wasn't exactly feeling at the top of his game today, so he just went back to looking at the menu. He wasn't in the mood for something too heavy, but he was _hungry_.

The tinkling of the bell announced that another person had come into the deli, and Len hastened towards the counter, still staring at the display of sandwiches and chilled hams stored behind the glass display. Should he just get a sandwich or should he get his usual mac and cheese? But that was really heavy, and as he felt his stomach churn again he doubted that he would be able to finish the pasta without throwing it all up a few hours later. He needed something light…but Len hated salads and sandwiches just weren't filling. The thing about this deli was that all their healthier options were bread or pastry-related, while all their proper meals were pretty heavy on the cheese and salt.

The person who just entered the store walked to the counter, and he ignored them since he wasn't about to order any time soon. Should he just order Rin and Mizki's food first? They would complain if he took too long to come back with their food, and he certainly didn't want the pink haired girl to whine on and on about her hunger and his laziness. The girl behind the counter leant forward, showing him a little bit of her cleavage – she was wearing her black employee shirt with the top three buttons undone, and he was quite sure that this was lower than what her contract stated. She caught his eye and shot him a wink, and he just smiled back at her, secretly wishing he could just make up his mind and leave. His head was still throbbing, but the ache was dull and tolerable.

The counter girl walked to the glass display and took out two sandwiches, coming back to the cash register to pass the customer their food. Meanwhile, Len had finally decided on getting four egg mayo sandwiches, convinced that four sandwiches should be enough to fill him up for a while without making him want to puke. But as he looked across to the counter, he blinked in complete surprise – a familiar head of teal was standing there in front of the register, nervously patting her pockets as though she had dropped something. The counter girl was starting to look annoyed, and Len could immediately figure out what was going on. He stepped over with his wallet out.

"I'll pay for that," he gestured at the sandwiches Miku had asked for – one tuna, one ham and cheese. Miku's head snapped around – evidently she had not noticed him when she came in either – and she stared at him in utter shock, her green eyes wide and round. He ignored her for the time being, sliding a few notes over to the cashier, who just smiled at him as though Miku was non-existent. "Could you get me four egg mayo sandwiches too? As well as one cheesy carbonara and one beef lasagne. Takeaway please," he added, and the girl nodded and bustled off to the kitchen to get the food. Len took the sandwiches from the counter and silently handed them over to the girl standing beside him.

Miku took the sandwiches as though they were hiding a bomb, her hands shaking noticeably when the plastic containers were placed on her palms. "You sure you don't want a carrier?" he asked, since she had two containers to hold and it would just be easier to place them in a bag unless she wanted to eat the sandwiches in the deli. She shook her head mutely and he shrugged, thinking that it was her own convenience anyway. The cashier came back then with two big bowls covered in plastic lids and placed them in a takeaway bag, putting his sandwiches in along with the food. He paid her, and when she tore out his receipt from the machine he saw her grab a marker and scribble something on the back of the slip – when he took the receipt, he saw she had written her number and a "call me", a small heart drawn next to the two words. He just grinned at her and she giggled coquettishly – maybe he would call her, she didn't seem like she would be too serious about him.

He turned and left the deli with the takeaway bag in hand, surprised when Miku followed him – he was surprised that she hadn't just left while he was waiting for his food, but maybe she had something to say. He still felt irritated about what she said to him last night, but since he was aware that she was largely right about him he tried not to show it on his face. "What happened to your wallet?" he turned back slightly and asked her. She was trailing behind him with her sandwiches in hand, one of them already half-eaten. In the light of the setting sun, her teal hair looked luminous.

"I left it at home," she shrugged, popping the last bit of her sandwich into her mouth. She promptly tore open the second container and bit into the bread inside, continuing what she was saying. "I'll pay you back the next time I see you. Thanks for helping me back there," she gestured vaguely back towards the deli, her hand still clutching on to the empty container. Wordlessly, he reached out and grabbed the plastic holder from her, tossing it into a nearby dustbin. She gaped at him, obviously confused about his behaviour, and to be honest Len was somewhat confused about what he was doing as well.

"You're my neighbour and my schoolmate. I guess that's enough for me to help you out, since it would have been embarrassing if you were kicked out of the deli and I didn't want any commotion," he shrugged. "Don't think too much about it," he added, glancing back at her again. She was still watching him warily, her green eyes reflecting the orange light of the sun. She was wearing yet another oversized jumper and a pair of jeans, though this time the jumper was bright sunny yellow and Len was suddenly reminded of his blond hair. At least his hair was dry now and was no longer sticking uncomfortably to the back of his neck. He hated it when Mizki poured water on him.

"I didn't intend to read anything into it," she retorted sharply, but quickly her tone softened. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped," she sighed, placing her sandwich back into her remaining container and taping it closed. She quickened her footsteps so that now she was walking next to him, instead of behind him. "You don't look too well. I'll carry that for you," before he could react, she grabbed the takeaway bag and held it firmly in her grip, ignoring his protests. "It's the least I could do since you helped me out just now," she pointed out when he continued to reach for the bag, and finally he conceded, allowing her to do whatever she wanted. He glanced away from her, wondering why he kept seeing her everywhere when she didn't even like him. Was this God's idea of a good joke?

"Look, about last night…" she suddenly spoke again, catching his attention once more, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have sounded so harsh when I didn't know about your circumstances. It doesn't mean that I forgive what you did to my friend, and I certainly don't condone your kind of entertainment, but I know that I shouldn't have snapped at you when you were showing concern for me. I'm sorry about what I said, and I hope that you won't take it to heart," she sounded sincere, her face tilted up so that she could look him directly in the eye. Len blinked, taking in what she just said. Did she really apologise to him, or was his constant headache causing him to hallucinate? Probably the latter.

"What circumstances are you talking about?" he asked, remembering that part of her apology. She fidgeted, shifting the takeaway bag from one hand to another. It wasn't that light – the deli was generous with portions – and he hoped that she would give in and return the bag to him soon. He could carry it perfectly fine even while sickly, but Miku was slender and delicate and she just didn't seem like she could do very much. Though he knew that he was probably underestimating her.

She seemed nervous. "Rin said something about…about you getting into an accident. And that this accident might be the reason why you're being like this now," she looked away from him, probably uncomfortable with saying all this right in front of him. "She didn't tell me anything about what happened and said that if I really wanted to know, then I ought to ask you myself," she added. "I don't know if you would tell me since we're not particularly close, but if there's really some external reason as to why you do all this…I don't know, maybe I just shouldn't be so quick to judge. Though it doesn't mean I think what you do is forgivable, nevertheless," she looked straight ahead.

For a few seconds, he had no words to say. His twin sister had actually told a stranger about him being involved in an accident…whatever he expected from their confrontation, it had not been that. He didn't know whether he ought to be shocked, angry or just plain uncaring. Finally, he opted for the last choice. "You're right, I won't tell you since you're not even a friend of mine," he couldn't help the defensiveness in his tone. Though he was trying hard to be apathetic, the accident was still a little sensitive for him and he wasn't sure who to blame for this secret of his being leaked – Miku for knowing, or his sister for telling. Of course, he couldn't bring himself to get angry at either party. "Maybe if you decide to stop being prejudiced against me, you'll see that I'm not just a walking dick, you know," he added, the words slipping out before he could think over how they would sound.

She actually laughed at that. "A walking dick, Len? You sure do a pretty good impersonation of one," she giggled softly before she turned and their gazes met. He found himself stopping as the sunset was reflected in her eyes, her green eyes iridescent. In this very moment, she was more than just a pretty face or a hostile stranger – she was breathtakingly beautiful, and for just this very moment his head did not ache as he basked in her loveliness. But then he reminded himself about what she said last night and the moment passed and he was back to being, well, himself. Len wasn't very sure where his feelings for Miku stood, but he knew that he neither liked nor disliked her and he thought that maybe she felt the same. Maybe she didn't dislike him, given her apology towards him just now.

"Well, this is my house," she spoke first, and he realised that they were, indeed, standing in front of her house. She passed the takeaway bag back to him. "Thanks again for helping me out," she bit her lip as he took the bag from her, feeling the weight settle back onto his palm. "I know you could have just left me there but you didn't do it, so maybe…maybe you're not quite as bad as I thought you were," her brow furrowed. "At least I hope you're not," she added. "I'll try to finish the score as soon as I can and get it to you by Sunday night, and we'll see whether it's what you were looking for," she gave him a genuine smile then, and once more he was distracted for the briefest of moments by her sheer loveliness before he shook himself out of it and muttered a few words of approval.

With a final word of farewell she turned towards the driveway and walked over to her door, letting herself into the house. He just stood there and watched until she disappeared inside and the door closed firmly behind her, and he thought about their exchange and how he might have changed her impression of him. He hadn't intended to, really – when he paid for her food he had done so because she was an acquaintance and he wasn't a complete asshole. But this small gesture seemed to be enough to make her slightly more accepting of him, along with whatever Rin had told her at school. Were they good friends or just classmates? Maybe he would ask Rin, he was a little curious about it.

As he walked down the street towards his own house, he considered his original intentions to get Miku into his bed and for a while, he wondered if he really wanted to do that. She was so difficult, and she was unlike any of the other girls who interacted with him. She might actually end up becoming a friend, since she seemed so thoroughly unaffected by his looks and what he said. God knew he needed friends, he had plenty of contacts but when it came to real friends, he had five…or fewer. It would be nice to have a female friend, someone who could offer a perspective that wouldn't be like his own or like Kaito and Piko's. But the idea of just settling for friendship with Miku seemed almost like acknowledging defeat in some way. He couldn't believe that she didn't like him in the slightest.

Exhaling through his nose, he decided to stop thinking about Miku for the moment and focus on getting home with the food still warm. He remembered the slip of paper in his takeaway bag and recalled the cashier's playful wink, and thought that maybe tomorrow he would call her and ask if she was interested in having a fling with him. It would do something to get his thoughts away from the doe-eyed girl with the long teal hair, who seemed almost unaware of how beautiful she was.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning, Len was moaning and his mother was sitting next to him in bed, gently wiping at his forehead with a wet cloth. He was running a high fever. Rin and their father were standing outside the door, watching Len as he tossed and turned in bed. Maybe he was having a nightmare.

Their mother rested the back of her hand against his forehead. "He's burning up," she announced, smoothing the damp blond fringe back from Len's closed eyes. "We should get a doctor to come and see him…he hasn't been getting enough rest lately, this must be why he's sick now," she shook her head, rising quietly from the bedside and walking over towards them. Len continued clutching at his blanket tightly, and the small groans that came from him made him sound like he was in pain. Rin went off to call their family doctor, and their mother and father decided that they wouldn't busy themselves with work today. Len rarely ever got sick, but when he did he became dangerously ill.

The family doctor came down within an hour. He looked at Len, measured his temperature, asked a few questions and prescribed some typical fever medicine and painkillers. The doctor assured them that Len ought to be recovered within a few days, and that since now the weather was getting chilly it would be better if he covered up more when he went out, especially late at night. Len spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon drifting between wakefulness and dreams. When he dreamt, it was always of the same thing – a small smile, an outstretched hand, an eternal blue sky with white clouds and sunshine. He was holding on to that hand, but then the person would fade away into nothingness and he would wake up, head pounding and a terrible foul taste in his mouth.

* * *

The very moment Miku knocked on the door, it was flung open and she was yanked into the house, Rin's grip on her wrist almost painfully tight. Miku stumbled past the threshold of the house, catching her very first glimpse of the Kagamine household. The first thing she noticed was that it was a very cosy sort of place. The living room alone was decorated in warm browns and nudes, with large open windows and gauzy drapes. They had a plush white couch and a woven carpet, surrounded by pretty lamps emitting soft, radiant light. It was lovely, but in a different way from her own house.

"Rin!" Miku protested when the blonde girl let go of her arm. Rin looked like she was ready to go on a date – she was all dressed up for once, wearing a sleek black halter dress and a very expensive looking crystal pendant. "Are you going out? Why did you suddenly ask me to come over?" Rin had called her asking her to come over for something urgent, and Miku quickly put on a comfortable loose tank and a pair of shorts before she went to Rin's house. The blonde did sound like she was in a rush and Miku was curious about what Rin was planning for tonight. It was already seven, after all.

"I have a date with my boyfriend. Shion Kaito," Rin added for Miku's benefit, when the teal haired girl tilted her head in confusion. "But my parents went to attend someone's wedding and well, the house can't be left without anyone around. Mizki and Luka are busy and I honestly don't trust any other girls to look after the house for me, so I called you over. And anyway you live the closest to me," Rin slid a lock of her hair behind her ear, a small smile on her face. "Would you do me this favour, Miku?" Rin wheedled. "I'll help you with whatever you want. You just need to stay around until eleven! I'll be back by then, or my parents will be back. Then you can go home," she beamed.

Miku hesitated. "Why can't you leave the house alone? Just lock the door and you're done, right?" she reasoned. It wasn't that she minded staying around in Rin's house – their house was pretty nice after all, and she didn't live far away. She could always just quickly pop back home and grab her homework so that she could finish it while she was here. It was just strange that Rin said they _had_ to have someone in the house while she was gone. This was taking paranoia to an entirely new level.

"Okay, well…actually, Len is sick. He's really ill," Rin sighed, glancing up at the ceiling. Miku raised her eyebrows, surprised by this piece of information. The boy had seemed perfectly fine just yesterday. "We can't just leave him alone at home when he's still having his fever. His temperature has come down a little and he's sleeping right now so he shouldn't be a bother, but just in case his condition gets worse we need someone to stay here and look after him. You probably won't even see him at all," Rin added, "I bet he'll sleep till tomorrow. If he needs anything he'll come down himself, he hates it when people go into his room, even me. The only one who can go in without getting yelled at is our mother!" she rolled her eyes, and Miku giggled. The eye roll was just so characteristic of Rin.

"If you put it like that I can't say no, can I?" she scratched her head, looking around the living room again and wondering what she could do to pass the time. Rin grinned, thanking her profusely as she opened the door and stepped out of the house. Miku could now see a sleek silver car – she didn't know what brand it was, but it certainly looked expensive – and saw a tall, navy haired boy leaning against the front door, his arms folded across his chest. Rin hurried over to him and Kaito kissed her on the cheek, before spotting Miku standing in the doorway and giving her a friendly wave.

Then Kaito and Rin got into the car and they drove off. Miku watched the car get smaller and smaller until it completely disappeared, then she went back inside the house. For a while, she just walked around the ground floor, looking at what the Kagamine family had in their home. The ground floor comprised a large living room, a smaller kitchen and a dining area. The kitchen was clean white and tiled, and Miku found herself wishing that her own kitchen could be as well stocked. Of course, she knew that it was just because she hadn't gone shopping for groceries or utensils yet, but she still hoped that her kitchen would eventually look somewhat like this one. It looked very well-used.

She didn't dare to go up to the next floor since this wasn't her house, and what Rin said about Len not allowing people into his room made her wary about just wandering around in the house. She didn't want to accidentally stumble inside his room while exploring the other floors, and anyway just poking around in another person's house would be rude. So Miku sat on the soft white couch and switched on the television, flipping through the various channels to see what she could watch. There was a cooking programme on right now, so she set the remote down and curled up in her seat.

Maybe she should just go home and grab her homework quickly before coming back to Rin's house. She couldn't help but feel like she was wasting precious time here, but she was hesitant about just running outside even if it was for only a while. Rin said that Len was ill, so what if she went outside and Len needed help at the same time? Or what if Len ended up doing something stupid while she was out? She wouldn't put it past him to call someone over while the house was empty. Sure, Rin said he was sick, but maybe he wasn't _that_ sick…he was fine yesterday, how could he be so ill now?

So for a while, Miku just sat around and watched whatever came on the television. After an hour of doing this, she couldn't stand it anymore and she got off the couch and went to the kitchen. She looked in the fridge – it was rather full with organic food products and beautifully ripe fruits. The kitchen cabinets contained cereals and instant ramen or other dry, canned foods. One of the cabinets was labelled 'Rin Only' and when she peeked inside, she saw it was completely filled with potato chips and snacks. This didn't surprise Miku at all, and she closed the door without touching anything in case Rin checked her stash and realised that something was missing. Maybe she could cook some of the instant ramen, or even better, make a healthy meal…but this wasn't her house.

Looking in the fridge again, she saw some leeks and onions along with a carton of beef broth. She was quite tempted to cook up some French onion soup with leeks, her favourite vegetable, but she resisted the urge to cook since she didn't know how Rin's parents would react to someone else using their kitchen. Miku liked to cook when she was bored, since it was nice to see raw ingredients being combined to form delicious meals. Plus, Miku liked to eat – not that it was obvious, given her slender frame, but she ran a lot and she had a body type which just wouldn't gain weight no matter what she ate. It sounded great until it became apparent that she would always be mistaken for anorexic.

She glanced at the utensils, hanging neatly on the hooks in the kitchen wall. They were polished to a great shine and they reflected the light in the kitchen ceiling, looking so perfect that they might as well be straight out from a catalogue. She wouldn't have been able to bring herself to use the kitchen utensils even if she had the courage to cook, since they were just so shiny and new looking. Lifting her gaze, she saw the kitchen clock and realised that it was half past eight. Rin said that either she or her parents would be back at eleven, so she still had two and a half hours left in this place.

Sighing, she went back to the living room, where the television was still switched on. She had flipped all the way to a cartoon channel and now, she watched as lively animated characters pranced across a bright green meadow and gracefully leapt off a bridge into the lake below. She didn't know what this cartoon was, so she picked up the remote and switched the television off. The screen went blank and she flopped against the back of the sofa, still not sure about what she ought to do. She was starting to feel so bored, but she couldn't just leave the house and she couldn't poke around in the upper floors either. Maybe she ought to just take a nap until Rin came back or Len woke up…

She thought she heard a creaking sound from upstairs and shot straight up, listening closely with her heart in her throat. But after listening for a while longer she didn't hear anything else, so she relaxed and told herself that she was simply imagining things. Rin said that Len was resting so he probably wasn't up and about at the moment. But five minutes later she heard a thumping sound and another creak, and she decided that she was definitely not imagining those noises. Should she go investigate what the noises were? Maybe Len was now awake and, in his current state, bumping into things.

There was yet another thump, and she hastily got off the couch, making up her mind to at least find out what he was doing. As she slipped up the stairs, wincing as one of the steps creaked noisily, she heard the faintest strains of music coming to her ears. She paused in the middle of the staircase, her fingers wrapped tightly around the polished wooden railing. The melody was extremely familiar, and she found herself swaying slightly as her eyes closed, trying to identify the music piece – it took her around three bars, but then her eyes snapped open and her lips parted. "Chopin, Opus 64 No. 1," she said to herself in recognition, quickly climbing up the stairs to where the music was coming from.

She found herself on the first floor landing. There were two doors directly facing each other here and two more right at the very end of the hallway. One of the doors at the end was slightly ajar and she could hear the music coming from there – the music was clear and light-hearted. It was one of her favourite pieces from the Romantic period. She slunk over to the door and peeked inside, not wanting to distract the pianist – the room was wide and spacious, the wallpaper printed with pink roses and curling vines. But what she noticed the most was the grand piano right in the centre of the room and the blond haired pianist sitting in front of it, his slender fingers flying across the keys with incredible precision and control. His left foot continuously stepped on the pedal, his head nodding to the rhythm of the music. She could hear the ending of the song coming and dreaded the last note, wishing to listen to him play more. She could play well – but Len was just _slightly_ better.

She had never been able to pull off Romantic pieces. She didn't have the emotion needed to really make the piece stand out. She was excellent at classical and baroque melodies, but when it came to waltzes and serenades she was too mechanical and stiff. Len finished the last note, letting it echo throughout the room for a while, and she wondered what he was going to do now. Instead of getting up or turning around, after a few moments he went into another song, and what amazed her was how he didn't need to refer to a score, playing every piece with all its expressions from memory.

It did not take as long for her to identify his current piece, since she heard it all the time at weddings. Pachelbel's Canon in D swept over her, lulling her as she found her fingers fluttering, making the same motions as his hands over the piano keys. He could go from something as fast as Chopin's waltz to this piece without letting the previous affect his playing at all, and his phrases were long and smooth, all his _crescendos_ and _decrescendos_ gradual and just…perfect. He was really good with the right pedal, which was excellent as a bad pedal could utterly ruin the music. There were some people who were just too enthusiastic with the pedalling and the music became loud and slurred, and not in the least bit lovely. Suddenly the music stopped and she saw him hunch over and start to cough, the sound low and raspy. Concerned, she immediately went inside the room towards him.

"Are you all right?" she stood next to him and asked, one hand unconsciously reaching out towards him. Len glanced up at her and his vivid blue eyes widened at the sight of her. Hastily, he scrambled away from her across the piano seat, looking as though she was a ghost who had just materialised from nowhere to stand before him – she supposed she sort of did appear unexpectedly, since no one told him that she was here and he probably didn't hear her coming up the stairs towards the room.

"How are you in my house?" he shot back, his voice hoarse. Now that she could look at his face, she saw that his skin was sickly pale and that his hands were shaking slightly – that impressed her even more, that his fingers could tremble yet still play the piano so beautifully. His blond fringe looked matted and uneven, sticking to his forehead, and his lips were almost completely white. There were dark bags under his eyes, making him look haggard. He really did look terribly sick – Rin wasn't exaggerating his illness, and Miku really didn't think he was faking it. "Why are you even here?" he demanded, his brow suddenly furrowing. "You shouldn't be here. I mean…how did you get in?" he repeated dazedly to himself, looking away from her. His hand fluttered up to his forehead.

"Rin asked me to look after you and the house while she went out. She told me you're sick, and that your parents are both attending a wedding dinner so she needed someone to come over. And I live the closest to your house," Miku explained, though she wasn't sure how much of her explanation Len was hearing. He was shaking his head slightly, his fingers shaking noticeably now. "Do you need to rest?" she asked, concerned now that she knew he really, truly was terribly sick and wasn't just faking it for sympathy or…whatever else he might be doing. Len shook his head sharply at the very suggestion and she backed away, unsure of what else she could do. He looked like he was dying.

"Been sleeping…all day," he murmured to himself, looking at her from between his fingers. His blue eyes were wild. "Bored out of my mind. I really need to play something," abruptly, he turned back to the piano again, his fingers poised over the ivory keys, but before he could start playing anything she stepped towards him, placing a firm hand on his arm. She felt him stiffen at her touch and his hands froze in mid-air, his head swivelling towards her. He looked almost betrayed for some reason. She felt guilty, but she knew that she couldn't just watch him in this state. He definitely needed to rest.

"How about you sit somewhere and I play for you instead?" she offered hastily, gently moving his hands away from the piano. She wasn't quite sure herself why she was being so careful with him, but she knew she couldn't just be brutal with Len, not while he was so sick. When she touched his skin, she could feel the heat radiating off his body but she could also feel him trembling, and she knew that even if he wanted to do something besides sleep, he shouldn't be playing the piano right now. People thought that playing the piano was effortless, that one didn't need much energy to press a few keys. But she knew that playing could be draining, especially when one played in the same intense, emotional way Len did. It would just tire him out, and that would make him feel worse.

To her surprise, he actually got up from the seat and gestured towards her, asking her to sit. Hesitantly, she sat and drew the chair in slightly – Len's arms and legs were longer than hers, she didn't need to sit as far away from the piano as him. "What can you play?" Len's question was soft and raspy, and she pursed her lips, thinking hard about what she knew. She could play almost anything, but her forte was mostly classical pieces. And, unlike Len, she couldn't play entire musical scores from memory. Granted, the two pieces she overheard him playing weren't that long, but she didn't think she could recall them when she had so many other pieces in her mind, all fighting for space in her memory. Her gaze drifted to Len, who was standing slightly behind her with his arms folded across his chest. Suddenly, she was reminded of her previous piano teacher, a stern man who used to rap her knuckles with his ruler when she didn't arch her fingers perfectly. She shuddered.

"Classical pieces are best, or baroque pieces. Technical scores," she answered quietly, trying to breathe in deeply and calm herself down. She wouldn't be able to play well if she was so tense. She was nervous since Len played incredibly, even while so sick. Miku always had preferred to sing rather than play, though she could do both. She learnt how to play the piano so she could compose melodies to accompany her lyrics. She did not fancy sitting at a piano all day and just practicing over and over again…yet, it was obvious that was what Len did. No one became so expressive in music just though sheer talent. He had sat here and played over and over again to get to where he was.

Len walked – or more accurately, he stumbled – over to a nearby glass panelled cabinet, where she saw there were quite a few folders and books. He opened the cabinet and took out a cream manila folder, retrieving a clipped set of papers and putting the folder back inside the cabinet. He came over to her with the sheets in hand and when he held them out to her silently, she took them, her fingers quivering slightly as she traced the notes on the first page. "This is a baroque piece I haven't heard in a long time. I haven't been playing other composers for a while. This one isn't too difficult, so I believe you should be able to sight read if you've never played it," Len murmured, his blue gaze still intense despite how sick he was. She pretended to be unaffected by how piercing his eyes were.

"Sonata in D minor, K. 141. Domenico Scarlatti," she read off the top of the sheet, flipping through the pages. She saw the trills on the very first page and was already slightly intimidated – it looked like a lot for her, since she hadn't played the piano in a while and her fingers were rather stiff. Nowadays she was so busy with packing and unpacking and flying around. But Len had, in a way, given her a challenge and she wasn't one to back down from a challenge. Determinedly, she placed the music score on the ledge and tested out the first chord, her fingers pressing the keys lightly as she played D minor and got herself into the mood for the piece. Baroque pieces were sharp, clear and precise, focusing more on technical skill than emotion or expression. She couldn't afford to make any obvious mistakes for the piece to sound good, and she…really wanted to impress Len.

She didn't know why he reminded her so much of her old piano teacher, but she had been terrified of the stern man with the steel spectacles when she was young and had always wanted to impress him and make him proud of his pupil. Len gazed expectantly at her and, taking in a deep breath, she began to play, her fingers dancing slowly and tentatively across the piano keys before she steadily started to gain confidence and played slightly faster, trying to follow the musical directions.

When she started to make mistakes, she flinched and had to fight her desire to go back and repeat, instead continuing to sight read and play on. Len, who was still standing quietly behind her, didn't make any indication that he had heard anything wrong, but she knew that someone as good as Len was bound to have noticed the slip. She was already at the second page, which meant she was halfway through the piece, and she hoped that she wouldn't end up making another mistake again while she was playing. It was her pet peeve, though her previous teachers always told her that when she was sight reading it was better to continue on like the mistake had never happened. She was a perfectionist and she couldn't just pretend like she never slipped up. This was probably why her sight reading was always the worst performing component in her musical exams, besides the second piece since the second piece they had to play during the music examination was always a romantic piece.

She continued on, Len reaching over to flip the page for her when she was nearing the end of the third page. She focused very hard on the notes and the trills and the few slurs, scared that her fingers would stiffen up or slip when she had to play a trill again. Len started to pace behind her, his steps getting faster and faster the closer she came to the end, and she found that very distracting. It was difficult to maintain her current pace as Len walked back and forth behind her, obviously thinking about something. Her hands trembled slightly when she hit the last note, and she slowly withdrew her hands, placing them together on her lap. The ringing of that last note echoed throughout the room, highlighting the obvious silence between them. The atmosphere here was almost tense.

She heard him slowly start to clap. She turned, a little surprised, and saw him staring right back at her, his blue eyes hooded. His fringe was covering the top half of his face and blocking part of his gaze from view, but he didn't seem to care. "You did pretty well for someone who never played this before," he commented, his voice still hoarse and quiet. However, he seemed slightly livelier, and it didn't look like he was so…agitated anymore. Just now, before she stopped him from playing on, she could see the frantic fear in his eyes when he stayed still and stared at her, but he was calm now.

"You flatter me," she said modestly, though she was pleased by the compliment, coming from someone who was as good as Len. Len smiled at her as she rose from the seat, placing the red velvet cloth back over the keys and gently lowering the black cover. When she was done, Len stood next to the door and waited and she walked out of the room, knowing that he would follow her out. He closed the door behind them as she went back down to the living room, secretly feeling a little better now that she had company besides the kitchen and the television. Of course, Kagamine Len was certainly rather questionable company especially since he was ill, but she couldn't bear the thought of sitting alone downstairs until Rin came back without anything else to entertain her.

She glanced across at the clock on the living room wall. It was nine now, so there were two hours to go. Len went into the kitchen instead of sitting in the living room, and curious she rose from the white couch and followed him – she could hear him hacking and coughing while he drew out two ceramic cups, running them under the tap for a while. "Do you want hot chocolate or coffee?" he asked without turning around. She hesitated at the question. Miku didn't really want Len to be making her anything while he was sick. He should be resting instead of being up and about.

"I'll make the drink," she came over, taking the cups from him. He glanced at her, looking tired. His blue eyes were dull. "You go sit outside. I'll make you some honey and lemon," she turned around, wondering if the kitchen had lemons. She knew there was honey in one of the cabinets. It was Len's turn to hesitate, and after a moment he nodded, shuffling out of the kitchen. She went to the fridge and poked around in the fruits section, and finally behind a bag of oranges, she found two lemons.

Satisfied, she took the yellow fruit out. It was firm and cold, and she rolled the lemon around in her grip, deciding that it was good and ripe enough for her to use. Taking one of the citrus fruits, she cut the lemon into slices and found the juicer, pressing the slices into the juicer and squeezing out the juice. She did that for all the lemon slices and, after getting a decent amount of the cloudy liquid, she filtered the seeds out from the mixture and poured the lemon juice into one cup. Walking over to the cabinet with the honey, she opened the door and took the honey out, checking that it hadn't expired yet. Satisfied, she unscrewed the lid and took out two scoops of the amber liquid, knocking the spoon against the cup and letting the thick, viscous substance drip slowly into the lemon juice.

Mixing the honey and juice together with the honey covered spoon, she moved towards the hot water dispenser and filled the rest of the cup with hot water, stirring the mixture and ensuring that the honey dissolved perfectly within the liquid. Satisfied, she put the cup aside and filled up the remaining cup with warm water from the kettle, and then she brought out both cups with her to the living room. Len was sitting with his back against the white couch, right where she had been sitting when she first came into the house. He looked up at her when she left the kitchen, and for a while the two of them just watched each other, their gazes clashing. Then she blinked and the moment was gone, and Len went back to staring fixedly at the blank television screen. He looked lifeless.

She set the cup with the honey lemon drink down before him. "I made hot honey and lemon for you," she said awkwardly, feeling strange about talking to him right now. It was odd being in his house and making him drinks. He reached out with a small nod of thanks and leant back against the couch, the cup in hand. It was steaming hot, and he blew carefully at the surface of the liquid before taking a sip. She sat on the other end of the couch, curling up in the seat and holding her own cup.

"Must be boring in my house," he croaked, voice still nothing like what she was used to. "I see that you didn't bring much along with you," his gaze went from her head to her toes, and she suddenly became very conscious of the fact that she was dressed in nothing more than a thin tank top and a pair of denim shorts. She flushed, scrambling to sit primly and properly on the couch. It was the first time she was wearing so little in front of Len, and she hoped that he was sick enough that he wouldn't notice how skimpy her outfit was. She ought to have at least grabbed a cardigan or something before coming, but Rin had sounded really desperate and she literally just threw on the first things she saw before dashing over. She hadn't even bothered to tie up her long, thick hair.

"I kept myself entertained for a while. Then I heard you playing," she answered, sipping her warm water as she kept an eye firmly on him. He was no longer paying her any attention, frowning down at his honey lemon drink, and she breathed a quiet sigh of relief. She definitely didn't want him to notice her on any physical level. "You play very well," she offered as the silence between them grew, making her feel a little awkward. But she and Len were always awkward, that was nothing new.

"Thanks," he said quietly, placing his cup down on the coffee table before them. His coffee table was long, low and made of dark, polished mahogany. There were drawers set into the table as well, with ornate little hooks so they could be easily opened. "I've been playing the piano ever since I could remember. I think I was four years old when I first started going for classes. It used to be the perfect stress relief for me, but when I got older…well, it wasn't really enough," she could tell that he was making a subtle reference to his deviant behaviour, but she chose not to acknowledge his little hint. Instead, she set her cup down on the coffee table as well, looking right at him. He was gazing at the television again, his fingers pressed together to form a steeple on his lap. He looked almost gaunt.

"I didn't start playing as young as you. I was eight when I first started. A little late, but I loved the sound of the piano. I had a strict teacher…" she broke off, her gaze roaming over his profile. His straight, sloped nose with his high cheekbones, his full, pale lips and his stern expression…yes, when Len was sickly, he reminded her an awful lot of her first teacher. "You remind me of him," she said aloud, causing him to turn towards her with a curious eyebrow raised. "You don't look alike at all, but when you stood behind me while I was playing, somehow I was just reminded of him. You both have the same intensity when it comes to the piano. He used to stand behind me holding a ruler in his hand, waiting for me to make any mistakes…he's very strict," she admitted, "but he was good, and without him my foundation wouldn't have been sufficient. I appreciate him, but not his methods."

Len smiled. "I'm very particular about music too," he admitted. "I'm more of a composer and player than a singer, but I can do all three if I have to. I usually played the music while Rin sang. She sings quite well, you know," he laughed hoarsely at the look of surprise on her face. "I know you wouldn't expect it from someone as rude and vigorous as my sister, but she has quite a sweet voice…lower than yours, perhaps not as sweet or melodious as yours, but just as capable of carrying through a room. Her voice certainly gets attention. She was born to be a soloist, though we do sing duets when she's in the mood to," he shrugged. Miku was just startled by how he had described her voice. He said that her voice was melodious and carried well – did he really pay that much attention to her?

"Duets?" she echoed. "I'd like to listen one day," she mused to herself. He shrugged, and for some time the both of them didn't say anything. She thought over the way he talked about her voice, finding it surprising that he actually noticed anything about her besides her physical appearance. She had no doubt that Kagamine Len paid attention to her looks, but she didn't assume he would notice other things like her voice or…whatever else he might have noticed. She didn't know how she felt about this. On one hand, she felt like she ought to be unnerved, but on the other hand she couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised. Though honestly, Miku didn't want to feel good about it at all.

She wondered if this was a sign that he knew who she was, but thought it was more likely that he was just particularly observant. If he knew who she was, then surely he would have said something to her by now. "Do you think we could be friends?" Len suddenly asked, his voice still low and full of illness. Her gaze shot up and she looked at him in complete shock, wondering if he was delirious from sickness, but when she met his eyes his blue gaze was clear and lucid. She looked back to her hands clutched tightly in her lap, thinking over his words. What did he mean? Did he want to be genuine friends with her, or was he just using this as a front to get close? She couldn't tell, she didn't know if she wanted to figure out his true intentions, and suddenly she felt extremely suffocated.

"Maybe, if you stop sleeping around with every girl you see. Have you called that cashier already?" she asked, her voice coming out a little sharper than she originally intended. She hadn't missed the little exchange yesterday, and Len had certainly looked like he was about to reciprocate her interest. Len snorted at that question – a painful sound, but a snort nevertheless – and gave her a droll look. It was the first time today she had seen expression at all in his blue eyes, and that was a good thing. At least he no longer looked like he was dying. It was strange to see Len looking so unlike himself.

"Do I look like I'm in a state to call anyone? I was asleep all day," he answered, voice perfectly calm. Though Miku thought that, if Len had been better, his voice would have been filled with sarcasm. She didn't bother to react to that, and after a while Len gave her a small smile, blue eyes weary once more. "And if I told you that maybe I'd stop sleeping around, then what would you do?" he asked.

She hesitated. "Then maybe we can be friends," she said slowly. He nodded, and the two of them remained in semi-awkward silence, just talking about music and other hobbies until the clock hit eleven and Len's parents came home from the wedding dinner. They were friendly and pleasant people, and for some reason Len's mother – who shared the same silky blonde hair and fine, delicate features as her son – looked absolutely delighted to see her in the house. Len's father thanked her for coming over to look after Len in place of Rin, and Len's mother made her promise that she would join them for dinner some time. When Len walked her out of the house, already seeming better than when she first saw him, he whispered to her not to take his mother seriously, sounding almost embarrassed. But she said that if his mother really wanted her around, she didn't mind. Len didn't say anything in response to that, simply holding the door open for her and stepping outside.

She glanced at him in confusion. "Why are you coming outside?" she asked bluntly, placing her hands firmly in the pockets of her shorts. It was slightly windy out tonight, and her bare legs were exposed to the cold. It wasn't anything she couldn't tolerate, she had lived in colder places before, but she still felt a little uncomfortable. Len just stared back at her as though she had said something stupid. He had grabbed the grey hoodie draped over one of chairs in the dining area right before he went to the door, and he now looked extremely warm in the jacket. She was jealous.

"You came to my place and kept me company in place of my twin. Plus you're a girl…" he hesitated for a second here. "I should walk you back," he finally said, his tone so firm that she knew better than to argue. For someone who was practically half-dead from his fever, he could be awfully stubborn. "Don't bother shoving me inside either, my mother would agree that I should walk you home. You live nearby anyway," he coughed into his hand, looking away from her momentarily. "I'll be fine. Let's go so I can get home and seek refuge from this bloody wind," he grumbled, setting off without her. She chased after him, walking briskly so that her legs wouldn't become too chilled.

He must have noticed her discomfort as she danced back on forth on the pavement beside him, though she tried her very best not to make it too obvious. "You're cold," he stated, and to her surprise he started to shrug off his grey hoodie. Instinctively she held her hands out, hastily stopping him from taking it off, and he frowned dazedly at her. "Just take the damn thing, I'll be fine," he got one arm out from the jacket before she clutched on to him, preventing him from going any further.

Warmth was radiating from him, but she could feel him shivering. The sky outside was very dark and there were a few stars high up above them. It was a calm and peaceful sort of night, and she felt she would be perfectly safe walking home alone, though she appreciated the company. She really thought it would be better if he stayed home though. "You're already sick, Kagamine Len!" she cried out, her fingers wrapped tightly around his arm. "You've done enough for me. I haven't even paid you back for the food yesterday. If you take off your hoodie for me your stupid fever is only going to get worse!"

They stared at each other in silence for a while, his blue eyes widening in the moonlight. The silvery light fell upon him, highlighting the upper half of his face and making his blond hair seem almost white. Then gently, his free hand reached up and removed hers and he took the hoodie off, placing the warm grey cotton jacket around her shoulders. She stared at him dazedly as he moved back and smiled at her – a surprisingly genuine smile that made her heart speed up in her chest. She hated this, she hated herself, she hated that she was making him sicker and she hated that this actually made her happy. "You might think that I'm an asshole who only knows how to mess with girls," he said quietly, voice still rather hoarse, "but I really try my best to minimise the damage I leave. It doesn't matter if you believe me or not. I don't set out intending to break hearts, though I know it's an unfortunate consequence of my actions and I'm truly sorry about it. I don't particularly enjoy what I do, but sometimes it doesn't feel like I have any choice. I can't relax or forget about things, otherwise," his gaze darted away from her. "Anyway, I do care about people. I don't want you to get cold or end up like me now," he frowned. "Trust me, running a high fever over the weekend _sucks_."

She clutched on to the jacket around her shoulders, desperately thinking about a way to return the jacket without him just pushing it on her once more. "Uh, you wore this already. It probably has your germs all over it…you should take it back," she tried to shrug the jacket off, but Len placed his hands on her shoulders and refused to let go, preventing her from removing the outerwear. He didn't stop until she sighed and gave in, putting her arms through the sleeves. "You're going to regret this when you wake up tomorrow, you know," she warned, sounding almost angry. "You're going to make your fever worse, running around at night in this chilly weather without any hoodie on…"

"I have medicine, I'm young and strong. I'll be fine," Len said dismissively. "I'm already a lot better than I was this morning, if you ask my mother. At least I can walk and talk lucidly now. I rarely get ill, and when I do become sick it's always really bad. On the bright side, I recover fast as well," he shot her a smile. It wasn't the flirtatious smile she saw at the deli yesterday, nor was it the awkward smile he usually gave her when he didn't know what to say. It was a warm smile that didn't look any less charming despite his sickness. "Just hurry up so I can walk you back and get home before I freeze to death," he added, "otherwise if I really do end up dying tomorrow you'll have to take responsibility."

"Why me?" she protested laughingly, and they continued on their way. Miku returned his jacket promptly upon stepping into the warmth of her house and quickly returned him the cash she owed as well. She did invite him inside to get a warm drink before he went back out into the chilly night, but he declined and she just stood at her doorway in her tank and shorts, watching until his figure disappeared into the night. When he was swallowed up by the darkness, she slammed the door shut and sank down against the wooden surface, breathing heavily. Her mind was in a whirl, and her emotions were incredibly confused. What was she supposed to feel now? Touched? Cynical?

Why was he being so nice to her? There had to be a motive of some sort. She didn't believe that he did all this out of the kindness of his heart – if Len was kind, then he wouldn't be breaking hearts left right and centre. But at the same time, something within her whispered that he didn't look like he was anything but genuine – when he gave her the jacket at the expense of his health, when he stepped out into the cold night to walk her home because he felt like that was what a boy ought to do…if this was all just a game to him, then would he have put his health at risk for that? She didn't believe that he was so nice – decent maybe, nice no – but at the same time, she couldn't disregard what had happened.

And that question! _Do you think we could be friends_? What kind of question was that? Did he really just want to be _friends_ with her? Was he not going to bother to seduce her and play his stupid little games like he did with every other girl he saw? She wanted so badly to believe that they could be friends, but she still had her suspicions and doubts. People didn't change, at least not overnight, not even while they were terribly sick. But he was changing right before her very eyes. The important thing was, was this change real or was it all just an act orchestrated to make her fall for him?

Miku slowly rose from the floor and walked into the living room, curling up on her sleek leather couch and rocking back and forth as she thought about Len. If this was the old Len, the one she knew in her childhood, then she wouldn't have doubted for a second that all this was real…but this Len wasn't the Len she knew of old, so she had to be careful. Until she saw more she didn't dare to believe that he was genuinely nice to her. She would simply have to wait and see how things went.

 _And if what you saw is really the old Len? What if he's really still like that despite the player ways and the heartaches, what will you do then_? The question sneaked up into her mind and she froze, her heart still thudding away in her chest. Abruptly, she pushed the thought away, unwilling to consider that possibility at the moment. Until she was sure, she wouldn't do anything other than watch.


	10. Chapter 10

Len didn't expect to have twenty missed calls and more than fifty unread messages when he woke up on Sunday afternoon. Groggily, his arms unbelievably weak, he reached out to his phone and looked through his call log to see who was calling him...it was mostly the same few girls who just messaged him repeatedly, concerned about his lack of response. He shook his head, groaning softly.

Then one message caught his eye. It was from Miku. Curious, he opened the text – there were only four words in the message, but those four words caused a smile to tug at the corner of his lips. "Thanks for last night," he said out loud, his voice still raspy though it wasn't as bad as yesterday. He hoped he would be fully recovered by tomorrow. Reaching up, he pressed the back of his hand against his forehead but he couldn't tell if he still had a fever or not. He'd ask his mother later.

He heard someone knock on his door. "Come in," he called in as loud a voice as he could manage. The door swung open and Rin poked her head in, her expression one of concern. He smiled tiredly at her, unable to muster the energy to do anything more than that, and her blue eyes lit up with relief.

"I thought you were dead or something, you've never slept in so late before," Rin pulled the door open slightly wider, silently asking if she could come in. Len nodded and she slipped in, closing the door quietly behind her. "Mum told me that Miku took good care of you last night. She asked me if you two were dating," her blue eyes narrowed at that, regarding him suspiciously. "Please tell me you're not, Len. We both know what happens whenever you get close to a girl," she sounded accusatory. He met her gaze, uncertain about how to answer. If he lied, she wouldn't believe him. But if he told the truth, that he  _did_  want to sleep with Miku, he would never hear the end of it.

"Miku wouldn't allow me to touch her anyway," he finally answered, and that seemed to satisfy Rin. His sister flopped down on his chair, crossing her slim legs and placing a single finger against her chin. Len was sure she had gone out on a date with Kaito last night – Rin liked to stay at home and draw unless someone she cared for invited her out. She normally only went out with Mizki and Luka, who both wouldn't invite Rin out so late…so that probably left Kaito. The knowledge made him a little uneasy, but he didn't let it show on his face. They were boyfriend and girlfriend, after all. There was nothing wrong with them going out on a date at night. He just didn't like the thought of his twin sister and his good friend being in a relationship. Why did Rin have to choose Kaito, of all people?

"You shouldn't be wanting to touch her in the first place," his sister said disapprovingly. "Miku said she told you off about your behaviour two nights ago. I hope that what she says might get to you since you never listen to me," she glared at him and he just looked away, unable to suppress the guilt rising up within him. Maybe he was addicted to sex. He just couldn't seem to bring himself to stop even when Rin asked him to, even when he knew what happened as a result of his actions. If Rin had asked him to do anything else, he would have done it, but he couldn't give up having sex.

"I already tell them before anything happens that I'm not looking for a relationship," he said firmly, or at least as firmly as he could manage when his voice was still so hoarse. "If they end up breaking their own hearts because of their feelings, it's not my fault," an empty argument he was tired of repeating, but this was the only thing he had left which could make him feel less guilty about his actions. Rin was evidently sick of listening to this argument as well, for she got off the chair and walked right over to him, her blue eyes narrowed and her hands placed on her narrow hips.

"Don't give me that crap. If you want to justify your actions, then at least come up with a better way to defend yourself," her tone was harsh. Len just pressed his lips together sullenly and kept quiet. Finally, Rin sighed and withdrew, letting her hands fall limp at her side. "Whatever. I've said this over and over again and you've never listened. I don't expect anything different this time," she said flatly. "I only came up here to wake you up because you have a visitor…Miku came over today. I don't know why since she didn't say what she's here for. Maybe she's concerned about you since you walked her home yesterday despite being sick, according to Mum. She really hopes you two are dating, you know," something almost like a grimace flashed across Rin's face. Len was pretty sure that Rin disapproved of him being linked in any way to her friend, but he and Miku didn't have anything going on now.

"Is she downstairs?" the moment Len heard Miku was in their house, he got up from the bed and smoothed his hair down, quickly changing out of his ratty tank top into a more acceptable shirt. He didn't bother to change his shorts to spare his sister's modesty – not that Rin would have cared, honestly. She looked at him the same way she would look at a lamp post. He could guess why Miku was here today…she had promised to try and finish the score by Sunday, so surely that was why she had come over. Len was actually surprised that she could finish rearranging the score so quickly.

"Yeah, she's waiting for you. I'll leave you to get ready first," Rin headed out, leaving him to change and freshen up in peace. However, right before she left the room, she glanced backwards with her eyes still narrowed and her expression grim. "She's a good girl, Len," Rin started, and for a moment Len was reminded of their mother. "I might not have known her for very long but she seems like she's genuinely nice and kind. So if you break her heart, Len, I will break your bones. Always keep that in mind."

With that, the blonde left his room, the door shutting quietly behind her. Len stared at the closed door for a while, thinking over his sister and what she said, but after a while, he just shrugged and went back to changing out of his sleeping clothes. Rin had nothing to worry about when it came to Miku. Len would try to seduce their neighbour, but if Miku was ultimately unmoved he wouldn't bother to continue either. Whether or not he actually got into any relationship with the girl was solely up to her discretion – if this failed, then he could always just find a new girl to sleep with.

* * *

"He'll be downstairs in a bit, he just woke up," Rin called from the staircase, hopping from step to step. Miku glanced up at her friend and smiled nervously, the score she had finished held tightly in her grasp. Rin's parents were nowhere to be seen today, and she wondered where they were.

"Did your parents go anywhere today?" she asked, curious. Rin just shrugged and came over to sit next to Miku, her gaze dropping towards what she had on her lap. Instinctively, Miku grabbed the score and pressed the papers against her chest, preventing anyone from reading it. Rin looked a little surprised at this but she didn't comment on Miku's behaviour, instead relaxing against the couch.

"Today? My father went to the office since he didn't do much work yesterday what with Len being sick and all. My mother went shopping with some of her friends in town, she'll be back in time for dinner," Rin frowned thoughtfully. "At least I think she went to town. Her plans always change at the last moment," the blonde grinned, her blue gaze dropping curiously once more to the papers Miku clutched so tightly. "Is that for Len?" she asked, tone neutral. Miku hesitated before nodding, and thankfully Rin didn't ask any other questions. She couldn't say much about this score since Len had made her promise not to tell anyone about it, not even her friends or family. "Well, I'm going up to my room to finish off my stupid history essay," Rin made a face. "If Len tries anything on you, then just holler real loud and I'll come right over. I'm not joking," she added when Miku laughed.

She sobered quickly, nodding to reassure her friend. Rin exhaled, looking over her worriedly. "You're new, you don't have any idea what Len can be like. I'd just tell you to watch out. He doesn't tell me much, but from what I hear he can be _quite_  the charmer. I have nothing against you two becoming friends, but just…don't give him the wrong impression," Rin warned her, holding her gaze for a few seconds before she rose from the couch and went up the stairs. As Miku watched Rin go up, she saw the blonde pause and mutter something angrily to another person on the staircase, probably Len.

Just like she thought, the male twin appeared at the top of the stairs just a moment later, his blond hair loose around his pale face. He still looked slightly unwell, but he was much better than he was yesterday. He was wearing a white shirt and grey sweatpants, and the colour of the sweatpants suddenly reminded her of the hoodie he made her wear last night. Against her will, her cheeks warmed a little and she had to look away as Len walked over to her, humming quietly to himself.

"I arranged the piece for you according to what I can remember," she started when Len sat on the other end of the couch, giving them two seats of space between them. "I shifted it to a major key and changed the overall piece to  _allegretto_  instead of  _andante_. And I changed the time signature to six-eight instead of three-four. I hope it's what you're looking for," she handed the sheets of paper over to him. Len took hold of the score almost reverently, leafing through the pages with his brow furrowed. She could hear him singing softly as he read the notes, and he was unsurprisingly pitch-perfect – if they ever sang together, Miku had no doubt that his voice would be easy to blend with.

"I think this might be close to what I want," he suddenly looked at her, his eyes feverish with barely concealed excitement. "I mean it's still lacking  _something,_  I'm not sure what it is…but it just seems more right than the piece before was. Thank you so much – I don't know what to say…" his voice trailed off and they stared at each other for a while, neither one of them wishing to speak first. She fidgeted, twiddling her thumbs as his blue gaze continuously went from her face to the score. To be honest, she hadn't really quite remembered the melody of the song she heard in her youth, but she knew it was faster and livelier than what Len originally composed and thus arranged it to suit her memory better. She hadn't thought that her version would make Len so happy. He looked like he was being reunited with a long-lost friend, and she wondered  _why_  he was so excited about this.

"Can we continue working together on this?" he suddenly asked, looking up from the last page of the score. Something like concern seemed to flit across his expression, but she blinked and the look was gone, and she was left wondering if she had imagined it. "It's just so close to what I had in mind. You know, maybe we could submit this for our final assignment and let it be used for the Music Festival," he seemed to brighten at the idea. "I mean, yes it's a very personal piece for me but…if we really manage to perfect it, then it doesn't need to be such a secret anymore. But I understand if you don't want to use this piece," he hastened to say when she frowned, opening her mouth. "We did already start talking about the other melody we wanted to use, so if you don't want to change…"

"I'm totally fine with using this piece if we succeed in arranging it to meet your standards," she reassured him quickly. Suddenly changing their final submission wasn't the problem, since they still had months to go and they had plenty of time before the due date. "It's just…well, what if we don't manage to complete the piece in time? We're just relying on our memories here, and my recollection isn't the best either," she hesitated. "I got lucky with this arrangement, but like you said it's not exactly what you wanted, right? It's just a little closer to the original melody than your own version. I think we should continue to work on our original idea. It'd be good to do both," she tugged on a lock of her hair awkwardly. "Since this piece is so upbeat, and our original plan was to have a moody, soft kind of melody, right?"

Len frowned, running his hand through his hair. "All right, that makes sense," he acknowledged her suggestion, staring down once more at the music score. "I'll look at it later and try it out on the piano, maybe we can tweak it a little. By the way, I actually started on the composition for our intended piece. I was thinking of using D minor and a one-two time signature with a pedal throughout but I was afraid that would make it sound  _sort of_  like a waltz, so I wasn't sure if we wanted to go ahead with that. Do you want to see my draft?" he asked. She nodded, not quite paying attention to everything he was saying but aware that he had asked her a question. He rose from his seat and went up the stairs, presumably towards his room, and she just sat and waited.

Why was she spending so much time with Len nowadays? Fate seemed to draw the two of them together, and she couldn't understand why. She was always running into him even though she knew she should try to avoid him. On the last bus home from the inner city, at the nearby deli, being forced to babysit him by Rin, and now coming especially to his house just to pass him a score when she could have emailed it over. But she knew that she had to hand this to him personally. This was important to him, she could tell – she suspected that it was a lot more than just a nice piece of music to him or a work in progress like he claimed. In fact, she was sure it held significance for her too since she could sort of remember hearing this melody as well, but she couldn't recall it clearly either.

Either way, she really ought to be making more of an effort to avoid Len. But she wasn't, and that made her question herself. Why was she not running away despite seeing what the boy had done to poor Teto, and no doubt to countless other girls as well? She knew it was just the memory of him which kept her here, continuously drawn to his presence even though she was aware that it was all just a fragment of her childhood. That Len no longer existed and now he was someone who, if not for her childhood memories, she never would have gotten close to, not for anything in the world.

Maybe she was stupid. But something told her to wait and see, hoping that maybe the old Len would surface from the one who spoke to her now. How long would it take before that hope died out? She could not deny that when she flew back here she had been hoping to see Len again, and see if he still remembered her. It wouldn't have been surprising if he did not since they only knew each other for slightly more than a year before she moved away – but she hadn't expected him to forget her so entirely. It felt almost like an insult, actually.  _Wait and see, wait and see_ , her sentimental thoughts whispered to her. She curled her fingers into fists. All right, she would wait for Len to fail her then – she knew that there was no retrieving the former boy from the cruel man he had grown to become.

"Here you go," a black folder was suddenly thrust in front of her and she jumped, eyes widening in shock. Len had returned while she was reminiscing her past, managing to sneak up on her while she was distracted. He gazed at her curiously, maybe wondering about her reaction to his words. "I've sort of come up with the first eight bars. Take a look and tell me what you think," he sat in his seat on the other end of the couch once more, waiting for her to look through his work. She took a deep breath and flipped the folder open, prepared to be awed by his compositions. Though she had seen better pieces, there was just something extremely raw and emotional about Len's music. It was as though you could hear the composer himself crying out through the black notes and solid lines.

Like what Len had mentioned – she remembered something about pedalling and one-two timing – it was a slow piece, moody and dramatic like what they had intended. She frowned, her fingers tracing over the arching slurs. There was nothing wrong with the music, but for some reason, it didn't sit that well with her. Then again, she was pretty biased against romantic pieces. "It's too much like a…like a ballad," she struggled to find the right word to describe the piece. "I think to impress the judges, we can't just throw in a sad melody with a typical slow tempo. I mean yes, this isn't exactly a waltz since the time signature isn't right, but it  _feels_  like a waltz, a very slow waltz. Can't we compose a sad song with a quick beat?" she glanced up at Len, who was nodding away with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

"We can try…it's not going to be as easy to do that, but it's not impossible," he mused. She took the chance to study him, comparing this to the first time she really noticed him in the library. Back then, with the red spectacles perched on his nose and his grave, thoughtful expression, he had seemed so stern and beautiful, like a statue chiselled from a slab of pure white marble. Now, he looked more haggard and worn, his hair was down and the dark circles under his eyes were a stark contrast against his pale skin, but she thought that it made him look more human, more approachable. He was still ridiculously handsome, but he wasn't as intimidating now as he was in the school library.

"You know one of your songs in the folder you showed me? The second last one?" he nodded, his gaze fixed intently on her. She swallowed and continued, struck by a sudden idea. "We could base our score on that. I mean, we don't use it exactly, but we come up with something else that would sound similar, but slower…an arrangement," she concluded, watching his face to see how he would react to the suggestion. She wasn't too sure if he would welcome the idea since this mysterious work in progress she was helping him with was an arrangement of his previous piece as well. To her relief, Len was rather receptive towards the idea, and he said he would try to get something done by next week. Miku then decided that she had spent enough time here with Len, and she rose to leave.

"Have you had lunch?" Len asked, noticing her rise from the couch and straighten her clothes, ready to leave his house. She blinked at him, startled by the question, and he ran his fingers through his hair again, his blue gaze darting away from her before returning just as quickly. "I was asleep the whole day and I just woke up a while ago, I don't know if Rin mentioned that to you. I haven't had anything to eat yet so I'm a little hungry," he shrugged. "It's okay if you already ate, but if you want to join me that would be nice," he smiled at her. It was a very small, nervous kind of smile.

Rin's warning about how charming Len could be suddenly popped into Miku's mind. Was he really nervous or was he just pretending to be shy so she would be swayed into spending more time with him? "Sure, we can go eat something. Why don't we invite Rin along?" she asked, deciding that she would feel a lot better about spending time with Len if his twin sister happened to be present too.

"She's busy, I don't think she'll want to leave the house until she's done with her assignment," Len shrugged again. "You're welcome to invite her if you want, but I wouldn't recommend interrupting Rin while she's working unless you're very sure you can survive her screaming fits," his lips quirked up into a tiny smirk as he reached out to the coffee table, pulling one of the drawers open. She glanced down at the table, her eyes drawn to his movements, and she saw him pull out an elastic red hair tie and put his blond hair up into that familiar ponytail before he closed the drawer.

Miku wasn't sure if Len was telling the truth or not. On one hand, it seemed very likely that he wasn't lying, but on the other hand, she still wasn't sure if she was all right with spending time alone with him. She could always decline the invitation and just leave right there, but she actually hadn't eaten lunch and it would be nice to have some company while she ate, even if it was Len…plus, her mind was still telling her to wait and see before passing judgement on Len so she was pretty curious about his offer. He couldn't do anything to her unless she allowed it anyway, so there was nothing for her to fear, right? "Fine, let's go eat then. Where do you want to have lunch?" she asked.

"I don't know if you've been to the outskirts of the suburb but there's a small Vietnamese restaurant there that serves excellent  _pho_. Do you want to have that?" he asked, looking almost relieved when she agreed to eat with him. She nodded, wondering why he would react that way, and so they left the house in search of Len's Vietnamese restaurant. Much to her relief, he told her that it wasn't very far away from the deli they visited the day before. Her stomach could finally stop gurgling.

Miku kept a constant distance between them, always walking slightly behind Len. Len was fine with that, understanding that she still didn't feel that comfortable around him given her knowledge of his promiscuous ways. She might have apologised for her harsh words, but she clearly did not forgive him for what he did. He didn't expect her to and he hardly dared to think that they might ever become friends, but as long as this didn't affect their partnership and the quality of her work he was all right with it…for now. Eventually, he would aim for more – whether he wanted her friendship or just the sex, he still did not know – but for now, he was willing to give her the space she needed.

Soon enough, he spotted the restaurant and turned around to point it out to her. Miku glanced towards the small establishment, with its simple shopfront and the wooden sign with the name of the restaurant, 'Saigon Shanty' emblazoned on it in bold block letters. Despite the late hour, there were still people inside the restaurant, which was famous in this suburb for their beef noodles and their strong herbal broth. Len liked to eat here when he fancied something light and didn't mind walking further than he normally would. He guessed it would do wonders for him since he still wasn't feeling too good – he actually liked the herbal soup here, and it usually made him feel slightly better.

"Is it expensive?" Miku worried. She had her purse out and she was currently checking the amount of cash she had left. Len figured that she didn't have much since she was asking about the price. He wanted to tell her that he would pay for the meal, but knowing her she would most probably protest so he held his tongue. He would just ask for the bill later while she was distracted or something.

"No, it's not. It's only five dollars per bowl if you get their signature dish," he answered honestly. Miku nodded, looking relieved, and followed him quietly as he pushed the door to the restaurant open and slipped inside. Their server led them to a table and gave them a menu before going off to attend to other customers, and Len watched Miku pore over the menu with a look of concentration on her face. He already knew what he was going to order, so he didn't bother to look. "Do you need a recommendation?" he asked when she flipped to the back of the menu, sighing audibly.

Her green gaze darted up to meet his, startled. "I'm trying to decide between the beef or chicken noodles, or maybe the meatball ones…or maybe the glass noodles, I don't know," she flipped to the front of the menu again. He tried to hide his amused smirk. "I don't really like beef," she muttered to herself, "but the beef slices really look good here. I can't say the same for the chicken, but chicken hardly ever goes wrong while beef has so much room for mistakes. But the meatballs look amazing too. And should I get a drink? I  _am_  kind of thirsty, but they charge for water!" she was talking to herself, but Len was quite amused by her rambling and just watched as she fussed over what to eat.

Their server came over. "Have you decided on your order?" she asked, a small notepad and wooden pencil in hand. She beamed at both of them, her brown hair tied into a bun with tendrils escaping to frame her face. She was a nice woman who looked surprisingly young for her age – Len had spoken to her before once or twice during off-peak hours, and he knew that she was a widow with two children and was working this job to support them. She was thirty-eight years old and her children were sixteen and twelve respectively. Her husband had died in a workplace accident eight years ago.

"Give me the noodles in herbal broth with beef slices, and the spring rolls," the woman was already scribbling down his order into the notepad. She knew what he wanted, he always ate the exact same thing when he came here and he came here often enough for her to remember his face. She turned towards Miku, who was still frustrated about what to eat. Miku glanced helplessly at Len, and he took that as an indication that he ought to order for her as well. "Just make it two bowls of the beef noodles, and add on one glass of cold barley," he told the server. The woman nodded and repeated their order, then she took the menus away, bustling off to submit their order to the kitchen.

"So the noodles are really that nice?" Miku asked, looking around the restaurant. The interior was rustic and plain just like the storefront. The tables were mostly round and made of white plastic. Everyone here sat on coloured stools, and on every single table, there was a set of condiments – soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, salt, sugar and chilli. There were also chopsticks, forks, spoons and paper napkins placed in metal containers next to the condiments. The floor beneath them was made of dark wood and it was always clean since there was always a cleaning lady who swept and mopped the floors once every few hours. The smell of herbs wafted through the air, making him hungry.

"I don't know what your definition of nice is, but I personally like the noodles," he answered, eagerly awaiting his spring rolls. It didn't take long to come – five minutes after Miku asked her question, his spring rolls were here, gently steaming. The crispy fragrance hit him and he inhaled, picking up a pair of chopsticks and biting into one of the rolls. He offered some to Miku, who hesitantly ate one as well, and he watched in satisfaction as her green eyes lit up in pleasure, the sweet yet savoury taste of the spring rolls flooding through her mouth. "It's good, isn't it? But the noodles and the herbal broth are even better," he declared, setting his chopsticks down. She was in the midst of taking another spring roll. "Later, you really need to finish the soup. It's good for you, they make the broth themselves every day," he informed her. She nodded, munching happily on her spring roll.

As Miku steadily demolished his plate, he let his gaze wander around the restaurant, taking note of who was in here today. There were three girls, none of which he recognised for they all seemed younger than him – Len never tried anything with girls who weren't his age at least. The three girls seated together looked like they were sixteen years old, and they kept glancing at him and giggling when he turned to look. He was aware that they were ogling him but he ignored it, used to receiving attention for his looks. They were too young to interest him so his attention continued to wander, only returning to Miku whenever she finished swallowing a mouthful and picked up another roll.

He saw their server come out from the kitchen with two bowls on her tray along with a tall glass of white, semi-transparent liquid. It had to be their food. Len sat straight up, craving his beef noodles and Miku noticed his change in posture, glancing towards the server as well. Her green eyes lit up with interest as their server approached them carefully, balancing the two heavy bowls on her tray. However, before she could reach them, Len noticed the door to the restaurant opening and looked around to see who was coming into the restaurant. His eyes widened in recognition and he groaned quietly to himself, hoping that the person wouldn't notice him and come over to talk or something.

Obviously, he wasn't that fortunate and their gazes met. The girl's red eyes widened in delight and she instantly made a beeline for his table. Len tried his very best to somehow become invisible but it didn't work, and then both he and Miku were looking at the new girl standing next to their table. The girl tossed her long silver hair over her shoulders, fluttering her eyelashes at Len while shooting Miku a dark glare. "Len! I thought you were avoiding me! I'm so glad to see you here," she giggled.

He smiled weakly. He  _had_  been avoiding her, and for good reason. "It's nice to see you too, Tei," he couldn't bring himself to look at Miku though he could feel her green eyes burning a hole right through him. He thought that Sukone Tei had finally gotten over him months ago since she was no longer stalking him everywhere he went, but watching her beam at him now as though she was a child who had just rediscovered a lost favourite toy, he could tell that he was horribly wrong. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach – he had the feeling that this encounter was not going to end well.


End file.
